Pokemon: TF-X Chronicles
by SassyZoroark
Summary: With a new gene altering super-virus that can turn people into Pokemon, it appears that Team Rocket has even more reason to be feared than ever. Two siblings, the result of the organization's first experiment, have escaped, and in the hands of a new trainer, must help to fulfill her dreams of conquering the Pokemon Gyms and League. Team Rocket, however, won't let them go quietly...
1. Chapter I - The Initiation

"Hurry up! What are you, a Slowpoke?"

Greg's words cut through the otherwise quiet and quaint Santalune Forest located in the Kalos region. It was quite late that night, with the sun slowly setting over the horizon, but with all of these tall trees surrounding the 17 year old boy, the brightest star in the sky was nowhere to be seen. It was then that a girl of 15 would be seen in the distance careening towards Greg, stopping with her shoes skidding across the dirt, leaving a noticeable trail. "Y-you're just trying to lose me, aren't you…?" Britney was bent over and panting, her glasses almost falling off of her ears and nose, but luckily she pushed them back into position with a swift movement of her fingers.

Standing straight once again, she gave Greg a simple look of bewilderment, causing him to let out a chuckle. "Mom and Dad said we should get out and exercise more, so we're doing just that." Greg and Britney lived with their parents, just like many other teens would, but unlike many other teens, they lived in a life of seclusion, having a house in the middle of a forest, far away from any town, city or anywhere else that would be of significance. Sometimes, they would all go for strolls through the massive forest they had called home, but tonight, with their parents both being too tired from their shifts at a nearby lumber mill, it was Greg who suggested to Britney that they should go alone for once, though she was hesitant as it was getting late, plus she knew just how much he liked to run and sprint.

Greg was quite athletic, but Britney was a bit on the chubby side. "Don't you think… huff… we should go back now?" Britney was also quite scared of the dark, especially after reading so much creepypasta concerning the Slender Man, and her forest environment only made things worse. "You don't have to worry about a thing with me around, I'll protect you from anything! Including the Slender Man." His chuckling at the end of his sentence clearly showed he wasn't taking her seriously. "H-hey! Could you please not say that…" Greg rolled his eyes, and turned his head up to the sky. Night was quickly approaching, but he was still in the mood to explore, and just up ahead was an area he had never been in before.

Seeing that smirk of his, Britney knew exactly what he was gonna do. "Oh no, no way, we are NOT going further in…" Greg turned back to her, that smirk still painted across his face. "Why not? It's not like all those creepypasta things really exist. And besides, I got this with me…" Greg lifted his jacket slightly to reveal the belt on his denim jeans, with a whole lineup of six Pokeballs on it. He was quite a seasoned trainer, even managing to win a badge from the Santalune City Gym a few weeks back during one of their family's few trips to the outside world. Greg was feeling confident, perhaps a bit too much so, but Britney realized he was going to go no matter what, and frankly, she would be more terrified walking back all by herself then having to go into the deeper part of the woods with her brother. "Okay, okay, fine… but let's not wait until midnight or something to head back, yes?" Greg just gave her a nod before he stormed off. His curiosity was his drive, and fear of being alone was Britney's. They both set their sights, and walked, and occasionally ran, into the depths of the forest.

Unfortunately for Greg, he would soon never have a chance to use his Pokemon ever again.

Almost an hour past, and it was now almost pitch black in Santalune Forest. Had it not been for the radiant moonlight in the night sky, Greg and Britney would be completely blind. The shrubbery was getting quite thick, to the point where the older brother would have to dig through bushes in order to move forward, with Britney standing right behind him. "Um… hey, don't you think we're going too far? What if we get lost?" Greg was fortunate to have a Chandelure with him as one of his six Pokemon, though as he was still able to see fine, and didn't have any intention of going back anytime soon, he still kept it in his Pokeball. He remained silent at her question, which really bothered her. Britney at this point cut in front of him and grinded him to a halt. "What's with you? You've been so quiet all of a sudden, and you're really creeping me the hell out. Could we please just go back now?" Greg just stared at her with puffed out cheeks and looking pouty in general. "Oh come now, where's your sense of adventure, sis? To be honest, I came this far out to help you break out of your shell."

Britney was a bit taken aback by the truth that broke out, and looked down nervously, feeling anxious and miserable for making her brother come out so far. "I… don't really wanna come out here, can we-" Greg interrupted his sister with a quick palm to her mouth, quieting her down as he could've sworn he heard something out of the ordinary. Just as she was about to speak up out of frustration, Britney noticed he was carefully scanning their surroundings, and guessed he heard a strange noise. As they stood in the supposed silence, Greg could've sworn he heard an alarm blaring. His first thought was that it was a car, but to think that a car would be driven inside this place, with no roads and too many trees, just seemed insane to him. At this point, he had no idea what else it could be, but he managed to somehow pinpoint the direction it was coming from, turning in that direction as Britney was now starting to hear it, as well. "Sounds like an alarm… I think we should check it out, maybe it's a car, and someone crashed, but I don't know why someone would try driving through here…" Britney hesitantly nodded, knowing full well he wouldn't take no for an answer. With that, they both started walking once more, in the direction of the odd noise.

10 minutes had passed since they began to trail towards the noise. Greg was definitely hearing it more clearly in the direction they were taking, and his pace, and in turn, Britney's, would speed up with each passing second, until they were both running. Another minute passed once they both broke off into a sprint, and Greg wasn't only hearing the alarm very clearly, he could see a light past the trees and through the bushes. And as he passed through the forest, he saw more and more bright lights cutting through the darkness and illuminating his surroundings. However, soon enough, he came to a grinding halt, which allowed Britney a chance to catch up, for she had fallen a couple seconds behind. Just as she stopped beside Greg, she gazed up at him and took note of his shocked face. "Wh-what…?" It didn't take long for her to get the idea, and she too looked out in the distance to a sight neither of them ever expected.

A military base, with an alarm blaring that seemed to signal aircraft making an entrance and an exit, and with enough lighting to blanket the whole place in enough light to simulate the sun. And on several of the buildings and other tall structures, was a big, red R symbol. It was a Team Rocket base.

Greg and Britney both immediately got the hunch that they shouldn't be there. Their lips both quivered, their legs had shook, and they both turned to each other while nodding, as if they both had the same idea, and they knew it. Greg and Britney did a full 180, and would've started running right away, had it not been for a pair of large, disembodied eyes gazing at them both in the pitch blackness of whence they came. What would've been white had it been a human eye was a deep shade of yellow, and the irises were a soul piercing blood red. The more Greg looked into the vision of whatever was there, the more dreadful he felt. Britney, however, was far from keeping her cool. With shaking limbs, twitching eyes and lips, and fingers spasming out of control, she started to let out a scream, but was quickly silenced as the eyes in the darkness had began to glow blue. That same blue glow would appear around Britney, and she was soon lifted into the air, now too terrified to even let anything escape her breath.

"BRITNEY!" Greg yelled at the top of his lungs as he watched his dear sister be flung into a nearby tree, with enough force that it knocked her unconscious and left a mark in the wood where she had hit it. As Greg stared at his sister in utter horror, covered in bruises, but still somehow breathing, he stared at the eyes in the black of the night with gritted teeth. In a blind rage, he charged at it, with a raised fist. He didn't care what it was that did this, he just wanted it dead. But out of the shadows came a Mismagius, grinning delightfully at the sight of the angry boy. Just as his punch was going to land, Mismagius fired a Shadow Ball right at his head, causing him to fall backwards onto the back of his skull, quickly losing consciousness as well. The Mismagius grinned even more, happy to have served its master well, as a Team Rocket scout had jumped down from the tree that Britney was crashed into. She observed the two teenagers lying almost lifelessly on the forest floor, covered in bruises and in Greg's case, blood from the back of his head.

"Hmm… you'll both make a fine addition to the experiment…"

Greg, despite his major head wound, was still alive, but barely. His vision, however, was pitch black. For a split second, he was scared that he was now blind, but amidst the darkness, he could make out the texture of what appeared to be a sack over his head. It was thin enough that once he got to a brightly lit room, he could make out some figures of people and machinery strewn about. As much as he wanted to break free of the grip of whoever or whatever was carrying him, he knew for certain in his near death state that that would be nothing more than a suicide mission. So, he merely did nothing. His sense of sight may have been impaired, but he could certainly still hear things fine. And with that, he heard many different sounds, all of differing distances, some sounding like they were incredibly loud from several rooms away. The nearest sound, however, was something that had sounded like a surgical instrument cutting viciously into flesh. He didn't hear a single scream or any other sound of pain, so either he was mistaken, or whoever was there was already dead.

He started to panic at that thought of it being Britney, but a quick glance to his right, as faint as it was, revealed what appeared to be a Machoke judging by the shape, carrying a woman on his arms that too had a sack over her head. That was a massive relief for him, but still, he was generally panicking quite a bit at the situation they now found themselves in. He felt like it was all his fault, as he was the one that wanted to venture deeper into the woods. It was him that wanted to follow the sound. It was him that wanted to even go for a walk in the forest all by themselves in the dead of night. Tears had ran down his face, and he wanted to shout out how sorry he was for getting them both in this situation. However, those thoughts were interrupted as both Machoke came to a halt. Greg gazed up and managed to spot two Team Rocket grunts standing in front of them with their hands outstretched, a clear sign they were halted by their handlers. Turning back to face away from them, the grunts stood in line and saluted what appeared to be scientists, and one of them was speaking out loud as they got closer to Greg.

"...is going along nicely! In fact, we believe we've just perfected the formula. Test runs we've ran throughout the morning and afternoon have all been a rousing success, with a zero chance of failure rate! All Pokemon we've infected with-" The scientist was cut off, from what Greg made of it, someone had raised their hand up at them. For someone to merely raise a limb to get him to stop talking must've meant he was a pretty high ranking or feared individual. He soon started to speak, with a voice that was low, but refined. "Doctor… I did not hire you, nor have I paid you, to waste your effort on trying to make a creature something it already is. I want human test subjects. Enough stalling, I want real, proper results with the TF Virus." The scientist took a few seconds to start speaking, as he was making sure the intimidating man wasn't just pausing in the middle of a speech. "Y-yes, but… you know how hard it is to collect humans! And besides, it arouses too much suspicion! Using wild Pokemon as test subjects guarantees no one will find out about our operation! And another thing, the name of the virus is now-" He had once again cut in, this time, with a loud voice that turned several heads and caused nearby scientists to jump. "I DO NOT CARE!"

Silence filled the room once more, apart from the running of automated machinery. He took a small breath through his nose and stared at the lead scientist in the eyes intently. "We are Team Rocket. We control everything. The moment the police know we are involved in a crime, they will close the case and leave it unsolved. We are feared throughout Kanto, Kalos and beyond. If you doubt my organization, and think for even a second that we are vulnerable, I will have you silenced." The scare tactics seemed to work as the lead scientist seemed to be quaking in his boots. Just then, the two Team Rocket grunts cut in once the intimidating man stopped talking, saluting as they spoke. "Sir! We bring good news. Agent Echo caught two intruders that were on the outskirts of our base. They're being carried by the Machoke right behind us, sir!"

The intimidating man walked over to the two grunts and went between them as they stepped away. His gaze was set firmly on Greg's eyes. It was as if he knew he was wide awake, and his paranoia only grew once he let a smirk paint his twisted face. "Hmph… tell Echo she's getting a raise. These two will be fine." The lead scientist was ecstatic, having his ass saved and pleasing the higher ranked official at the same time. He cheerfully chimed in. "Th-thank you for bringing these lively test subjects to us, you two! I promise, sir, we will put them to good use. In fact, while you're still visiting, sir, why don't we hold the experiment as soon as possible? It would be an honor to have you witness our first successful human subjects undergo the experimentation!" The man hadn't turned away from Greg, still staring into his very soul as he spoke softly once more. "...That's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say in years… go and prep the lab immediately." With that, the lead scientist nodded and started to walk in the direction of the lab with the Machokes and the two hostages in toe. He looked back at the intimidating man and spoke once more before automated doors could close behind him.

"We shouldn't be more than an hour. I'll keep you in touch… Mr. Giovanni."

As the doors closed behind them all, the crazed scientist was writing down many notes on a clipboard he had been holding in his arm. As to what those notes were, Greg couldn't notice, not that that was the main focus on his mind right now. Giovanni's staring almost made him have a panic attack, and just the slightest twitch probably would've caused the Machoke to snap him in half if Giovanni was the kind of man that was paranoid of injury. From how intense his gaze was, Greg could've sworn he knew the badly beaten boy was wide awake, and overheard everything they were speaking about. His smirk, as well as his unwillingness to act on his eavesdropping, felt like a taunt, as if this experiment would be his punishment.

Whatever it was, he started getting the feeling that it was a fate even worse than death, and his anxiety was going through the roof. He managed to not do any sudden movements however, because the last thing he wanted was to be body slammed by a Machoke until he was killed. The lead scientist was also mumbling to himself, and he seemed to sound angry. Greg tried to focus on him, as hard as it was with that splitting headache. "That smug little shit… he thinks so low of me, he doesn't even think I'll do this experiment right! Oh, I'll show 'em, I'll show him the next generation of loyal super soldiers for Team Rocket!" He snapped his pencil in half, or at least Greg heard something snap. Judging from the lack of the sound of scribbling, it was definitely his pencil. The scientist stood still to process his thoughts, and took a deep breath before continuing his walk along with the Machokes.

"Heh heh heh heh heh… no need to be so angry, Jackson, he'll see just how amazing you are soon enough…" Dr. Jackson stopped by a large, reinforced steel door with a retinal scanner, leaning down to place his eye over it to get clearance. The panel blurted "Access Granted" in a robotic tone as the doors slid open, and the Machoke went inside along with him, as they closed behind Greg with a loud thud. Once again, his vision was pitch black as the room they entered had much dimmer lighting compared to outside the rooms they had traveled through. However, the room wasn't just dimmer than usual; Greg was starting to lose conscious once again, having another mental breakdown in the process as he feared the worst. Soon enough, he completely blacked out, leaving his fate up to Dr. Jackson.

In his sleep, Greg had distorted visions and dreams of everything he had saw up until this point today. His sister, his parents, the Mismagius and the Team Rocket base, everything was a confusing and muddled mess. The images of seeing Britney smacked against the tree seemed to play over and over, and with each repeat, grew more gruesome. It wasn't long before what he saw in reality, his sibling being smashed and bruised upon being thrown, became a nightmarish alternate universe where Britney's body was disfigured, cut open and dismembered from the sheer force of crashing into the wood, which caused the tree itself to shatter into a thousand pieces, along with the bones inside her body. Mismagius became something far more terrifying, not a Pokemon, but rather, a void darker than pitch black that when Greg in his nightmare was gazing into, he sensed the greatest feeling of dread he had ever felt in his life.

It was as if he was staring into the eyes of the devil itself, and in the real world, it caused the real Greg to shiver and twist uncontrollably. It looked like he was in an intense pain, one that wasn't even purely mental, and in his dream world, eyes as white and bright as the Team Rocket base's lights had cut through the infinitely black void. Suddenly, a large maw developed just below the eyes, with teeth as long as broadswords protruding outwards. It was then that the void leapt towards Greg and swallowed him whole. Just as everything went black, a loud crunch was heard, the sound of bones breaking and flesh being cut into, for sure. That spine tingling noise was what caused Greg to awaken with a bone chilling scream… or at least, it seemed that way until his vision completely came back to him.

In truth, the Mismagius from before was having a little fun with him again before the experiment began. As Agent Echo and Giovanni were watching down from a balcony high above, sealed off with a thick plate of glass, Mismagius was inside the room and using Dream Eater against Greg as a sadistic wake up call. His vision incredibly blurred and his ears producing nothing but an intense ringing noise, all he could do was stare and gaze around the room in his dazed state, but it wasn't long until he looked to the right and saw a familiar face. It was Britney, and like Greg, she was tied up to a rotted looking wooden chair. Britney looked like she was crying uncontrollably, and was pulling herself as far to the edge of the seat as she could towards Greg and Mismagius. She seemed to be shouting at the two of them, constantly switching her view towards either the sadistic Ghost type and her brother. Soon enough, the ringing sound was fading from his ears and he was able to hear her somewhat clearly.

"...it! Stop it, you sick fuck! Leave my brother alone! Greg, wake up! Wake up, Arceus dammit!" As his eyes were opening wider and his head was tilting upwards, Britney was able to tell Greg was awake as the lighting was shining on his eyes, which made it incredibly hard for him to see, but he was willing to do anything to make her realize he was still alive, despite that massive head wound he still possessed, which was crudely patched up by a mere bandage. Britney became silent at the sight of Greg being alive, but certainly not well, as the Mismagius let out a cackle that seemed to give both of them a headache. And with that, she drifted up towards the balcony the two high ranking Team Rocket officials were waiting in, phasing right through the glass wall that separated the two rooms. Mismagius received a pat on the cheek from the ever so mysterious Agent Echo, smiling delightfully at her Pokemon. "You did a wonderful job, my dear. I'm sure they will remember those dreams for years to come…" Giovanni too had let that familiar smirk paint his mouth, as he was also quite the sadist when it came to experimentation and torture. "Good to see you've put all that training to good use… you'll make a fine vice-president, you know."

Echo's smile seemed to fade as her eyes made a quick beeline towards Giovanni, with her body shifting towards him too. With her hands on her hips, she slowly walked closer to Giovanni. "Hmph… how many times have I told you? I am not interested in a higher rank. With that, comes a boring desk job, and you know I can't stand staying out of the action… sir." Giovanni closed his eyes while his gaze went south, and he started to snicker in a low tone. "You haven't changed a bit… good. Stay that way." Echo stared at him with an unamused gaze for a second or two before she too let a laugh escape her breath. They both overlooked the first human subjects of the experiment for awhile, until Dr. Jackson had made his way into the small balcony with them, carrying two small vials with him and his trademark clipboard. "So glad you could make it, your leadership. And oh, what a pleasant surprise, Ms. Echo…" Just as his gaze turned to her, Agent Echo quickly spoke up. "Just get to the point and stop your dawdling." Jackson was of course furious to be cut off, but had to keep his composure, or else Giovanni would make sure he wouldn't get another chance to complain. "...Very well. As you can see, I have two vials here, and they are precisely what we have been working so hard for years to perfect…"

While the nerdy and crazed professor explained to the two about the experiment they were about to perform, two terrified siblings sat down in the room below, trembling and silent as they were now deep into their own thoughts of what was about to happen to them. Amidst the floor was the occasional stain of blood, and Greg's awkward, very muddled gaze of the room's walls revealed shackles and chains that hanged from the walls. Combined with the blood, it would be easy to see that this room was once used as a torture chamber, but the smell in some aspects was still fresh. Scratch that; looks like the room was used for a multitude of purposes, but all of which were clearly of the sadistic and vile nature. Slowly, Greg's hearing was now good enough to pick up the sound of his sister quietly whimpering and shaking her bound feet against the floor, with each tap being strong enough that he could feel it in his own right foot. He tried to lean over as far as he could towards Britney, and started to speak in a somber tone. "...Sis?" Britney initially didn't react until Greg had once again said his words but at a higher volume. "Sis!" Britney jumped in her seat and started to breath even faster as she turned to face Greg. She still did not say a thing as her breathing was taking over her voice, but gave him a nod to show that she was paying attention. Greg spoke in the soft tone again, not wanting to alarm Britney any further.

"...I'm sorry. this is… all my fault. I… I'm the one that wanted to go further into Santalune Forest… I'm the one that chased after the alarms and the lights and all the shit that caused us to… end up here, it's my fault, don't you even think for a fucking second this was because of you. I… I'm so sorry… I'm sorry... I'm sorry…" Greg had never before felt so miserable in his life. He and his sister were about to suffer a terrible fate that neither of them knew was, and it was this terrible feeling of the unknown that ate away at both of them the most. He, like a broken record, simply kept whimpering his words about being sorry, gradually saying them slower as he was losing faith in Britney. She wasn't responding at all, at least for the moment. About a minute after he began saying sorry nonstop, she simply whispered his name to grab his attention, as Greg was looking down at the blood stained steel floor below him. Looking back to his right to glance at his sister, they were both breathing heavily as their injuries were taking their toll on their bodies. Just as Britney was about to speak up, an alarm had suddenly blared, and more lights had illuminated the room until looking up merely made them find a sea of white. At that moment, a familiar voice erupted from a loudspeaker that was inside the room and connected to many other speakers throughout the facility.

"Commence virus experiment TF-X! Live human test subjects are in use!"

A massive glass wall, as thick as the one that shielded Jackson and co., came crashing down to the center of the room, separating the two siblings as their anxiety skyrocketed. Greg was on the left side of the room, and Britney was on the right. Had Greg still been leaning to the right like he was, his skull would've likely been crushed by the glass wall that landed between the two. The jump scare caused both of them to topple over in opposite directions, landing headfirst on the ground. At this point, the old and rotten chairs they were tied down on had splintered and fell apart, literally wearing out their usefulness as the room was in lockdown and virtually inescapable. Nothing, except a Ghost Pokemon, could get in or out, and that also included not just living things like Greg and Britney, but also gas.

As the two teens laid on the floor in pain and agony, much more so with Greg due to landing on his already severely injured head, distinctly colored gas had started to seep into both sections of the room. On Greg's side was a light blue mist, thin and not too painful to breath, but still managed to make him choke on occasion. Britney, however, was subjected to a thick, charcoal colored fog. By the time both gases had seeped their way into each section of the makeshift torture chamber, Greg's thinner gas was able to still be seen into by the scientists lurking above, while Britney's section was impossible to see into without infrared vision, something Dr. Jackson had taken into account as many of the scientist there, among their clipboards, notepads and pens they used to jot down the results, had infrared goggles, allowing them to see Britney's heat signature. For the moment though, all eyes were on Greg, as the effects of the strange mist, despite what was visually a smaller dose, seemed to kick in first. And upon looking down at his hands, Greg would find out just what the TF-X viral experiment was all about.

Greg started to gasp loudly and shiver in fear at the sight of his hands as they slowly became white. Starting at his fingertips, his skin was painfully bleaching itself and losing its original color, becoming a pure white pigment. As the color loss finally stopped at his wrists, all seemed well as he wasn't experiencing any ounce of pain at that moment. However, just like that Mismagius, the TF-X virus seemed sick and twisted, as the pain came roaring back in an instant. Greg's fingernails were all starting to pop off of each fingertip, and while that was going on, his pinky and ring finger of each hand started to merge into each other, bones and all. Almost immediately after the first merging process began, Greg's middle and index fingers followed suit and became one with each other. The only finger spared of any drastic changes wasn't even a finger at all; it was his thumbs, as they simply changed shape to match the other two fingers. Wallowing in pain at the restructuring of his bones, Greg's woes only continued as light blue skin was now forming along his arms, which brought with it a massive shrinking of his upper limbs. His arms were now quite slender looking and quite flexible, from the look of things. At least, they would be if he wasn't in so much agonizing pain.

The morphing continued along him as they reached his shoulders, or as of today, his lack thereof. Greg's much smaller arms were now pressed against his body without any shoulders to support them, but with the way his body was changing, he wouldn't need them. As the blue skin was taking him over, it was quite rapid on the way down to change his lower body, while the painful change in skin tone was only creeping up to his neck at a snail's pace. Greg felt his torso compress and contort into a smaller and slimmer, almost egg shaped body, and while he looked down, he realized he was also getting smaller in general, as evidenced by his clothes becoming baggier and looser until he was completely covered, now obscured by the shirt he once wore on his back. His legs were next on the list as they shrunk down in length by a considerable amount, but he could feel, amongst the pain, that they were somehow getting stronger, strong enough to allow him to leap to great heights. From his thighs down to his toes, Greg's legs were now completely blue, not having an ounce of white to highlight him down there like his hands. His toes also painstakingly followed the fate of his fingers, all of them rearranging, morphing and pressing against each other to form two large toes. His leg joints also moved up his torso a fair amount, which was of course accompanied by some of Greg's deathly screams.

Finally, as if it was waiting for all other parts of his body to be completed, the blue skin rushed up Greg's head until he was now cyan colored from head to toe. While his head was being morphed, a large amount of a foam-like substance was now growing from his neck, and it mostly bunched up towards the back of the now clearly no longer human male. Of all the parts of his being, Greg's head was the thing that changed the most. He felt and saw his cheeks and chin both widen and expand considerably until they were all part of the same seamless slope. His cheeks ended in a rounded point as the top of his head followed the same fate as the lower half. Once the adjustments were done, his head seemed to resemble a football in shape, and that's where all the repositioning began. His mouth moved lower until it was now on the underside of his face, joining the chin as it too enlarged as well as the tongue inside, becoming much wider and longer in length. Of the most painful of these mouth adjustments was Greg losing all of his teeth as they fell down onto the floor, each clatter of bone hitting the steel at his feet causing a ripple to strike his body, as he was panicking so hard once his head first started to change that he ran out of the top of his shirt.

Two small bubble pieces formed over his nose as it shrank down into nonexistence, only his nostrils remaining. A dark blue stripe had also formed along the center of his cranium, ending at his new nose. His ears and hair had all but disappeared at this point, as well. Finally, the scariest change of them all occurred; Greg's eyes shifted position which temporarily cut off his vision completely. He saw nothing but black for a few seconds as his eyes since grew to a massive size and were now on the very top of his head, along with his eye sockets which became just as blue as the rest of him and just as tall as the eyes they were hosting. They were changing color considerably as well, the familiar white and blue becoming a rather alien yellow and black. Now slowly becoming free of the pain, Greg found the strength to stand up, but had trouble keeping balance unless he kept his white hands firmly planted on the ground. It was then that he instantly knew what he had become, not even needing a reflection to show him his form.

Greg, after inhaling the mysterious cyan gas, became a Froakie.

Shortly after Greg had began his transformation, Britney, in the much heavier charcoal fog, was following in the footsteps of her brother. Half of the scientists in the observing chambers above the blood coated room had infrared goggles on as they stared intently at Britney's changes to come. Britney inhaled a lot of the thick gas, causing her to choke and gag quite a lot as her insides and outside began their painful shift. As Britney started to shrink, she could feel many of her bones shift into a very strange shape, one that was certainly unnatural to a human. Her knee joints had snapped backwards, each at two different times, both causing the girl to let out a shriek of combined terror and agony. Combined with her arms shifting closer towards her chest, and her hands and feet losing all of their toes and becoming of similar shape to feet rather than hands, was what made Britney go from a normal looking bipedal, to a twisted quadrupedal shape in a matter of seconds.

While shrinking enough to now pass through her clothes and lay between her shirt and pants, massive amounts of yellow fur started to grow along her body as well as some red and white highlights. Her body temperature was also rising dramatically, a fact that was easy to see from her heat signatures through the goggles becoming white hot. From here, Britney's changes occurred from the bottom to the top, with a red patch of fur that grew above her bottom now suddenly sprouting out into a large tail. It was much thicker and fluffier the closer it got to the base, and at the tip was that same red highlight that would predict her new tail's appearance. On her thighs sprouted two large, wing-like protrusions on each thigh, with the top one, closer to her torso, being the larger of the two on each leg. Britney's now completely yellow with fur torso was beginning to slim down considerably, as was her legs that had already changed quite a bit in their shape around the feet and ankle area. Britney was losing a massive amount of weight in no time at all, and she probably would've reacted to it had she not been lying on her side, unable to move due to the combined pain of her shifting body and her insanely high anxiety, causing her to breath very hard and fast with closed eyes and gritted teeth. Her neck also got elongated a slight amount, as the final changes were moving up to her already fur covered head.

Britney's head didn't go through a shape change as drastic and as painful as Greg's, but to call it painless would be cutting her too much slack. Her skull morphed into a slightly rounder shape, and her nose and mouth were both pushed outwards to form a muzzle. Britney's old nose had stretched out into a pointed shape, a perfect black triangle that was easy to distinguish from its color. Her cheeks also grew a pair of two wing-like fur patches, very similar in appearance to the extensions of fur that were grown on the her rear thighs. And luckily for Britney, her eyes did not go through a radical shift in movement like Greg had gone through. She simply had her eyes mutate to a much larger size. Going from white and brown to white and red, Britney's much simpler eye morphing left her with a lot less pain and blindness, but she couldn't tell the latter side effect due to having her eyes shut the whole time. For the final change, Britney's ears had shifted to the top of her head and enlarged by a massive amount into a triangle shape. Each ear was as large as her own head and felt quite heavy, and only felt heavier still as large amounts of red fur started to poof from the inside to form big tufts. It was at this point that her body temperature seemed to drop, as her ears seemed to act as a vent that let excess amounts of heat escape her body, and each discharge caused her ear tufts to flare up and unleash crackling embers as hot as 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Britney, sprawled out on the ground and barely conscious, had become a Fennekin.

As Greg was smashing his hands against the thick glass that blocked him from his sister, all he could see was the charcoal colored gas that was coating the whole room. "Britney?! Britney! Say something! Just show me you're alive!" With the black background and the shining glass, Greg was clearly able to see his reflection, and was painfully reminded of the situation he was in as all he could see stare back at him was a toad. With a few more meaningless punches thrown at the glass, he pressed his head against the glass and started to whimper and cry. Greg slumped down to the ground shortly afterwards, falling on his knees as the tear drops ran down his small frame and collected themselves in a small patch of stained blood on the steel floor. His eyes were barely open at this point as his hope was waning, but the gas was suddenly starting to slowly dissipate.

With a blink and a quick shift to being wide eyed, he gazed past the glass blocking them from each other, and in a dozen or so seconds the gas was faded enough for him to set his large eyes on his sibling. As his gaze was set upon her, Greg's mouth and eyes opened all the way in horror, his fingers clenching tightly at the glass, leaving visible marks. Britney's eyes at this point were now open, just barely, allowing them both to stare into each other's eyes and be equally horrified at the other's changes. Greg's transformation caused her to shriek, but upon trying to stand up like a normal person, she tripped over right away and was forced to gaze at her new front legs. Britney let out a blood curdling scream that clearly showed to Greg that his sister was the most afraid she's ever been in her life.

And as the fog had cleared and he set his sights on the two transformed people with a wickedly cheerful grin on his face, Jackson started to laugh menacingly, true to his mad scientist persona. "IT WOOOORKED! Did you see that, Giovanni?! I told you, you were in for a treat!" The loudspeaker was on, which allowed every scientist, and even the two siblings, to hear his prideful declaration. "With this new genetically engineered virus, we can make anyone, no matter if they are animal or human, into whatever Pokemon we wish! This is the power of the TF virus, reborn as the TF-X thanks to our secret ingredient!" Britney was looking up at the glassed off balcony with folded down ears and tears streaming down her neck, eyes and mouth wide open as she was completely consumed by despair.

Greg, however, was consumed with hatred and a lust for vengeance. He was snarling in a very animalistic way at the crazed scientist, but up there in his sealed off room, he believed he was completely safe, and made an effort to taunt the angry Froakie. "Get used to your new form, little boy! Because you shall be like this forever!" Jackson's words had gotten to Greg, as he was now seething with rage. All of his muscles tensed, his fists were clenched very tightly, and he was looking down at his own stomach and legs, which only furthered the hatred in his heart he had for that cruel man. Suddenly, without thinking, his belly bulged a slight amount, and the bulge moved up to his neck. He let loose a high pressure torrent of water that managed to get all the way towards the glass protecting Dr. Jackson, making him recoil as it had caused a small crack to appear. Greg was surprised and ended up blinking quite a few times as he stared at the crack that showed up. 'I… did that…?' Greg was certainly small, but as a Froakie, he was more powerful than any one man. He slowly realized this as his vision shifted to Britney, and let loose many barrages of Water Gun that splattered against and cracked the inches thick glass separating the two Pokemon, this time getting through even faster through the material thanks to being in much closer range, where the pressure of the water is highest.

"That little runt! Grrrr… tranqs! Fire the tranqs!" At his command, Jackson summoned several turrets that came from slots in the walls. All of them were pointed straight at Greg in the blink of an eye, and the Froakie managed to turn around in time to get a good look at the one on the opposite side of the room. He stared at it for a second before it let loose a single shot aimed right for his head. The Froakie gasped and initially shielded his eyes, however, he looked back at the dart trailing towards him, and noticed it seemed to be moving in slow motion. Blinking a few times in confusion, Greg remembered one important thing; Froakie and its evolutions are ninja-like in appearance and fighting style, not to mention reflexes. Smirking with confidence, he dodged the dart at the last second by side stepping, land smack dab in the middle of the Water Gun's focus point on the glass. Jackson's rage grew, so did his impatience, and he began to make all five guns fire at Greg, with each and every dart missing him and either clashing with the glass or shattering against the steel floor, all while he found time to let loose more Water Gun attacks.

Giovanni was now quite unamused at the sight of the his lead researcher failing to get his test subjects under control. While Dr. Jackson was distracted trying to shoot Froakie with both automated and manually controlled firearms, the Team Rocket CEO made a quiet exit with Agent Echo already by the door with her Mismagius. Standing by the door as it opened, Giovanni didn't even turn his head or shift his eyes as he spoke quietly to her. "With that idiot at the helm, I doubt he will get those runts under control, and I have no use for a Pokemon that refuses to bow down to a master. If necessary, kill them both, do not let them leave this place alive. Destroy this facility if you have to, I was going to get rid of it the moment TF-X was completed anyway." Echo nodded at the boss' request, her crimson shaded visor and helmet obscuring all but her mouth. "Your wish is my command, Giovanni. Do you have the TF-X samples?" Giovanni simply held up a suitcase, which obviously contained the blueprints and some test samples of the TF-X virus. "Mmm… you can leave the rest up to me, then." Giovanni smirked as he finally turned his head to the mysterious woman, sharing a glance and a small nod as he exited the room and made his way to the heliport. He and the few high ranking officials stationed at the facility were the few to be evacuated, as the rest were mere fodder he did not care for.

Back at the lab, Greg was making short work of all the darts being thrown his way, which only increased Dr. Jackson's frustration. Between all the high speed metal darts and Greg's continued Water Guns, the glass wall was becoming increasingly cracked, but it was holding steady even after the whole thing was covered top to bottom and left to right in ripples of broken crystal. Britney, still lying helplessly on the cold, metal floor, saw her brother try so hard to defend himself. The little fox saw the many cracks in the glass wall that separated the two from each other, but did not act at first, for her half closed eyes and current posture seemed to be giving her a low profile in comparison to Greg who had all eyes on him. As much as she was panicking and having incredibly large feelings of confusion and sadness, Britney knew she had to do something in order to help Greg and her escape. Perhaps that is what Greg was doing all along? Being a distraction would allow Britney to think of a plan of action, and her brother would always encourage her about her intellect when he was being nice to her.

Whatever it was that was happening, Britney started thinking fast. She looked carefully at the thick glass and saw among the cracks that it seemed to be getting foggy. It was honestly a bit hard to see the cracks with how much mist was on the thing. Britney was able to notice however, that the cracks did not pierce through to the other side of the glass, and was merely causing dents on Greg's side. Tackling the glass would probably not do a thing since her side of the glass was still wholly intact. Considering more options for another minute or so, and Britney was now completely out of ideas… until she remembered one important thing; she wasn't human anymore, she was a Fennekin, a fire type Pokemon. As much as it pained her to try and come to terms with her new body, she had to accept it and started to get a new idea, perhaps the only hope she had left.

Calling back to her human days at school, she remembered a certain time she was at science class as they were doing a practical activity. As explained by her teacher, extreme cold can cause brittleness in many materials, but trying to reverse this brittleness forcefully with extreme heat doesn't reverse it, in fact, it only makes things worse. Britney seemed to have a light bulb appear over her head, cause she gasped at this realization and gazed at the mist covered glass wall. If this was Greg's plan all along, it was certainly a good one. Still, Britney was frightened beyond anything she's experienced and didn't want to risk injury, but she had to complete her end of the plan or else they would never be reunited. She breathed slowly in her panic to try and calm herself, but as she breathed in, she could feel her body get hotter. Another moment of realization came to her as she started to breath in a lot without trying to breath out, filling her body up with oxygen to let her internal flame build up inside her stomach. Once she felt like the fires of Hell had engulfed herself, she quickly sprang up and prepared to launch a high powered Ember attack.

A scientist with Dr. Jackson had saw Britney sprang into action and attempted to grab the crazed, distracted lead scientist's attention. "S-sir!" Jackson turned to him and snarled out an angry retort. "NOT NOW! I'm busy!" The low ranking scientist was continually trying to steer his attention to Britney, until he had to literally grab his head and pull it in the direction that she was in. "The Fennekin's trying something, sir!" Jackson went eyed and let out a shriek of shock and defeat, even throwing his arms up into the air only for them to come crashing down on to the top of his head. "Oh nooooooo!" He tried desperately to direct turrets towards the fox, but alas, they were too slow in their duty to be summoned, and Britney let loose an Ember straight for the core of the glass wall. Upon letting the fireball escape her mouth, Britney recoiled backwards a bit, shocked that she was now able to perform such a feat, and gazed at the wall as ripples and tears started to appear all throughout the inside and out of it.

Greg turned back towards the glass in the midst of dodging all of the darts, and smirked with a cheeky grin on his face. With the glass in its current state of disrepair, he started to charge up a powerful Water Gun attack. It took him a couple seconds, and a dozen or so more dodged darts, before he unleashed his high powered Water Gun attack, striking the center of the class with the power of a critical hit. This massive application of force was enough to almost shatter the glass, but Greg's quick reflexes allowed him to hop his way towards it in a split second as he tackled the pinpoint of where both siblings aimed their attacks. He shielded himself by turning around in mid air, so his bubbles would absorb most of the damage of the broken glass, as contact with it at the speed he was traveling was enough to shatter it into hundreds of pieces, landing hands first on Britney's side as the trajectory he jumped at caused him to perform a back flip. He swiftly flipped back again to land on his feet, and gazed at Britney with a big smile on his face. She was so overcome with emotion at this point, for without her help, they would both be toast. Britney started to make a run towards him, and leaped into his arms while tearing up, causing Greg to almost fall over onto his backside.

"G-Greg, get us out of here! P-please…!" He simply nodded in response and wiped away her tears, with the smile returning to both of their faces. Greg felt very relieved to finally see his little sister smile again, even if it was a completely different face. Jackson and the scientist beside him were both slack jawed, in obvious awe as it took awhile for the lead scientist to react to a thing. "H-how did they think to do that?!" His voice over the loudspeaker caused them both to look up at the room he was in, their smiles replaced with snarls as they prepared themselves for another attack at any moment. Jackson pressed two buttons, one which raised the now destroyed glass wall up into the air once more, and opened the exit on Greg's side of the room, as many Team Rocket grunts now started to pour in, throwing Pokeballs up into the air to unleash their Pokemon. "Seize them! Don't let them escape!" Greg and Britney got into battle ready poses and faced off against a Scizor, a Mightyena and a Vigoroth, quite the unfair fight given they were outnumbered, outpowered and have only been Pokemon for a few minutes or so. "Greg… what should we do…?"

Greg had already hatched a plan by the time she asked, smirking once more as he turned to her and snatched her in his grip, holding her over his back bubbles as he sped towards the Scizor in front of the others. "You'll never escape, you little pests!" The Scizor was incredibly aggressive and agitated, most likely due to the cruel training Team Rocket Pokemon experience. He set his sights on them with a Slash attack via a horizontal swing, which would prove to be its downfall as Greg leapt up quickly and dodged it, as they both shared a glance before the Froakie bounced on top of his head with enough force to make it fall over and hit its head on the floor. Greg managed to then jump over all the other grunts and their Pokemon with Britney in hand, and Jackson was watching them carefully as they started to make a mad dash for the exit door. "Shit… I won't let you leave here alive!" The not so good doctor slammed his clenched fist down on a button that caused the door to close, but Greg's quick thinking allowed him to slide on his slippery knees to get low enough and maintain enough speed to get underneath, with Britney's soft ears just grazing the door. Jackson was furious at the sight as the grunts were banging on the door, and tried to open it with the same button, only to realize he had destroyed the control panel with his anger-filled fist. "...I need a bloody vacation…"

Greg slowly set Britney down on the floor as they were now in a hallway that lead to some rather wide open areas beyond, presumably the place he saw before with the machinery operating in the background. "You okay, Sis?" Britney was in quite a shock, but nonetheless gave him a nod as she was doing okay physically. Greg smiled to reassure her, looking back down the hallway to check for any incoming grunts, which lead Britney to glance at the back of his head, which revealed that his head wound was completely gone. She gasped at the sight and thought it was odd, but not worth mentioning, until Greg turned back around and asked what the gasp was for. "Huh? Something the matter?" Greg knew plenty of things were wrong, but he didn't hesitate to ask. "Y-your head wound… it's gone, I didn't see it." Greg blinked a few times at the realization that he didn't feel any head pain, touching the back of his head to feel for a wound, only to come up with nothing. "Worry about that later, we have to get out of here. Can you walk?"

Britney gazed down at her toeless feet, and slowly got up onto all fours before trying to walk, and much to her surprise, she was instantly able to fluently sprint. Their bodies certainly gave them new skills and knowledge about their bodies which they seemed to know the instant they transformed, but how that was possible, they didn't seem to care about now. Greg was happy to see her up and about as he started to hop quickly alongside her as both Kalos starters made their way to the end of the hallway to be greeted with blaring alarms. "ALERT. ALERT. TEST SUBJECTS HAVE ESCAPED EXPERIMENTATION ROOM #29. LETHAL FORCE IS AUTHORIZED." An automated, robotic voice shouted these words over the loudspeaker many times, and while Greg was snarling at the nearby one on the wall, Britney launched another Ember attack, destroying the loudspeaker there as Greg went wide eyed and slack jawed at her forwardness. "That thing was annoying me…" Greg simply nodded slightly as he looked around the halls they now found themselves in. "I think the only way we'll get out of here is through stealth, we can't take anything as we are now." Britney nodded at him as they both made haste to escape.

Several minutes and several rooms later, they were now at what Greg assumed was the room leading to the exit. To get there, they had to sneak past grunts, escape from fights with Pokemon and destroy several cameras, all of which was no problem to them. They were both getting confidant amidst the hardships and sorrows of how the situation originally started. "I think… this could be the way out. Shouldn't be too much further now, Sis…" Britney nodded at her brother as she slowly walked with him to the door, looking at both of them with long glances, studying their new forms for a bit before she slumped her head downwards along with her ears. Greg took notice of this supposed sadness and hopped in front of her. "Brit… what's the matter?" Britney still wasn't over how much they had changed, and wanted a swift return to her old self. "Greg… what are we gonna do? We can't go home looking like this, and how are we gonna change back…?" Greg blinked, and looked down somberly too, for he hadn't thought about any of that before now. As Britney was starting to tear up again, he suddenly gave her head a hug, trying so hard to cheer his sister up. "I promise we'll figure out how to make this work, I don't know if we can change back, but I can promise you, if we can't, we'll make the best of this, okay?"

Britney nodded, although it was a small one. The hug went on as she pressed her head against Greg's stomach, but out of nowhere, a strange force was pushing Britney upwards. The Froakie looked down at the Fennekin's feet and realized that it was Mismagius, who was lying in wait for the two. She phased out of the ground with glowing cyan eyes, picking up Fennekin with her Psychic attack as the ghastly Ghost Pokemon ascended to the far side wall of the room. Just as Greg came back to his senses, he was about to hop right at Mismagius to unleash a close range Water Gun, but a familiar voice stopped him from proceeding. "Halt!" Agent Echo jumped down from the ceiling she was sticking to, right in front of Greg to cut his only aim at Mismagius. With a grin being her only facial feature exposed, she stood proudly over him with her hands on her hips, as if she was mocking him. "Get out of my way, you bitch!" Greg snarled in an animalistic fashion and swiped his fist at her, but this only caused her to giggle with a gloved hand now raising to her lips. "You still don't know, do you? You're a Pokemon in every sense of the word, and so, all I can hear you say is your own name." Greg hadn't thought about it until now for he could still understand people, but the realization made him go quiet, festering his anger for her inside him.

"Mmm… good boy, don't move a muscle or your sister gets it. And just to prove to you I'm serious…" She snapped her fingers as they moved away from her mouth, causing Mismagius to tighten her grip on Britney to the point where she let a scream escape her breath. "Britney!" Greg was about to leap forward, but he remembered Echo's words and reluctantly had to sit still. Soon enough, Mismagius loosened her grip on the fox, giggling delightfully to cause so much pain and misery. "Hehe… why don't you stop resisting and come join Team Rocket? You've made quite a mess of our facility as it is, and I bet we could use some strong recruits like you." Greg simply stared at her as she continued her speech, and during this, would occasionally glance at Britney, who was now much closer to Mismagius. Among her pain filled breaths, she managed to get a glance back at him as well, and noticed he was breathing rather hard. Britney didn't think anything of it until she realized Greg was staring right at her, and was breathing in far more than he was breathing out. It took her a second, but she knew what he wanted her to do.

While they were hatching a plan, Agent Echo grew annoyed by how he wasn't looking at her while she was speaking of the glory of Team Rocket, and delivered a swift kick to his stomach which made him fall backwards, clearly hurt quite a lot as he tightly pressed his hand to his gut. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, you urchin!" Britney took it as a signal and while Echo was distracted with Greg, she inhaled a large amount of air quickly, which made her body burn up. Mismagius not only got irritated by this, but also dropped her down to the ground as she was now suffering from a severe burn. The scream from her Mismagius caught the attention of Echo, who quickly spun her head around to see what was going on, giving Greg enough time to run between her legs and spit out a Water Gun attack at Mismagius, causing her to hit the wall hard and slump down to the floor. Before Echo could turn around completely, Britney unleashed a mighty Ember from her maw that hit her right in her exposed mouth as she was gasping. The swallowed flame scorched her mouth as well as setting her inside alight, causing her to spontaneously combust. She fell over onto her back as she was now covered head to toe in flame that was destroying her from the inside out, with ear piercing screams of agonizing pain filling the room, and possibly the whole facility as it was that loud.

Britney was initially snarling angrily at the incinerated woman, but it slowly faded to a terrified look, as it slowly sunk in to her that she managed to seriously injure another person, something she would have never done in her past life. However, she only grew more distraught when Agent Echo was now charred and motionless. Britney had killed her, and the thought clouded her mind with so much despair and dread that she broke down into tears. Greg looked between the body and his sister, and looked back at the exit door, as he rushed over to Britney and tried to get her to move. "Sis, come on, we gotta go!" Britney's psych was completely shattered as she didn't respond to his pleas in the slightest, which forced the Froakie to start dragging her towards the door until she pushed him away and started to run in front, pushing the already slightly open door aside with ease as she stormed out of the base and towards the forest where they came from, with a worried-sick Greg right behind her. "Wait! Don't go on without me!"

Meanwhile, up in the sky, a large transport helicopter was flying northeast in the now pitch black skies, with only the lights in the cities below and the starlight as the pilot's only illumination. Giovanni and several other high ranking scientists and personnel were among the armored chopper, with a large R embezzled on the side. All of them except the CEO himself were practically having a party, breaking out champagne and praising each other for their accomplishments that will help grow Team Rocket to the top of the status quo. While everyone was having a good time, Giovanni was somberly staring out one of the windows, curiously in the direction of the base they were escaping. One grunt took note of his reluctance to party, and he approached him cautiously with a salute. "S-sir, is everything alright?" Giovanni's quick glance caused the grunt to recoil slightly, though he of course tried to recover from it. Giovanni simply shook his head, and so the soldier didn't question him further, going back to the festivities. The Team Rocket CEO gazed back out of the window, until a beep came from his highly advanced wrist watch, giving him an update on Agent Echo. Her heart had stopped beating, which could only mean one thing; she was now dead. Giovanni's top agents each had a heart sensor implanted in them, which allowed him to track their condition. With a blink, his gaze went back to the window. 'It seems they've dispatched my top agent… it appears we have underestimated them…' With a few taps of his watch, he brought up a screen with quite a disturbing question.

"Arm Base #087 to self destruct?"

'I have no use for that base or anyone in it. I have the TF-X, and that was the sole reason that place exists. Good riddance.' Giovanni clicked "Yes", sending the self destruct signal all the way back to the main power generator of the Team Rocket base he had just escaped. There, Jackson and the grunts were still trapped inside the torture chamber, as the control panel he accidentally destroyed controlled every single door in that room, even the ones in the small safety chamber he was in above the main room. As all the grunts were working furiously with their Pokemon to destroy the doors, Jackson was absorbed into his own little world, his elbows resting on the panel while his hands were scrunching up his hair and facial skin. "M-my research… all of those years of painstaking calibrations and trial and error… a waste…" Jackson was convinced that if all humans had been just as rebellious as the two siblings he just witnessed, then the TF-X virus was a complete and utter failure. He wallowed in self-pity, pulling his hair out in blind rage at how he spent so many years of his life on such a complicated, but meaningless organic weapon.

TF-X was meant to to further his career in Team Rocket into new heights, and it appeared it would do nothing but prove to be a time waster. Amidst these thoughts was another blaring of alarms, with the robotic voice returning to deliver a haunting message. "ALERT. ALERT. THIS FACILITY HAS BEEN RIGGED TO SELF DESTRUCT. ALL PERSONNEL ARE ADVISED TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY." The grunts all started to panic and ordered their Pokemon to attack the door faster and harder in order to escape, but it was no use, as there was going to be no time limit, as only Giovanni would do something so sick and twisted. Slowly, he gazed up at the ceiling while letting a final, twisted smirk paint his face. "Heh… well played… boss." Doing this meant Giovanni would theoretically destroy all evidence of TF-X research, something that only made him more somber. He of course did not know Giovanni had taken the samples and blueprints, but as he looked back down, he closed his eyes and was fully prepared to embrace death. "See you in Hell, Giovanni…"

As he let loose his parting words, Jackson was engulfed in flame from the explosion now being unleashed, as the blast originated from inside the underground section of the base, where he and the rest of the men were. While Britney ran into the forest first, with Greg in toe, the explosion carried up to the top of the base, causing him to stop and turn back in horror of the sight he had witnessed. The blast was a large one that created a large crater, with many buildings towards the center of the base collapsing into it or outright being caught in the explosion causing them to shatter and fall over. The outer buildings, such as the room leading up to the exit they just left, were among some of the few buildings that were relatively unscathed. This caused Greg to cringe quite hard, as this was a firm reminder as to how Team Rocket was such a cruel and malevolent organization. But he had no time to stand around and gawk, for he had a mentally disturbed sister he needed to calm, breaking back into his sprinting hops. Back at the chopper, the explosion was barely visible from where they were, and was certainly not audible. It didn't grab the attention of anyone else on board, except for Giovanni, who was intently staring at it while deep in thought as usual. '...I will return for you some day… please, be patient, Ms. Echo.' The CEO returned his gaze to the party, and put on a facade as he started to act just as cheerful as the rest of the participants.

Back in Santalune Forest, Britney was sprinting for dear life, as if she was trying to run away from the guilt she experienced at outright murdering a human being, even if they were cruel. She ran deep into the woods until she started to grow tired, slowing down to an eventual crawl and finally stopping, breathing heavily and erratically while she was slumping her head and ears down. In her despair, she raised her head up let out a frustrated scream with tears running down her cheeks, which in turn caused her to blurt out some fire. These flames emerging from her body caused her even greater distress as they seemed to give her PTSD-like flashbacks of using her flames to kill Agent Echo, and she ended up pressing her snout into the dirt and covering her own head with her front legs, whimpering and crying uncontrollably.

It was then that Greg managed to catch up with her, stopping a good distance behind Britney as he heard the whimpering. Walking over slowly to her, he started to hold his hand out which lightly rubbed at her back. "Hey…" Greg's comforting was interrupted by none other than Britney herself, who went wide eyed with dilated pupils, quickly turning around and biting down hard on the Froakie's hand. She had chomped him so hard, her two prominent fangs began to draw blood from Greg's white hand, causing him to yell out a yelp, but he didn't move an inch. Britney was gazing down at the hand for awhile before her snarling gaze went up to meet Greg's tear drenched eyes. The sight of her brother in pain caused her eyes and senses to return back to normal slowly, as she had a panicked glance back down at his hand and quickly pried her sharp teeth loose, with Greg being quick to place his other hand on the wound to stop the blood from leaking out. They both shared a moment of silence, as Britney looked away from him. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" As she cried and sniffled, Greg came closer and started to crouch down to give her a much needed hug. He wrapped his arms quickly around her neck and hugged her face against his stomach, being sure to place his uninjured hand on the wound in the process. "I told you we could make this all work out, didn't I? I vow to keep that promise." Greg's words calmed Britney's words a fair amount, as she slowly nodded in his grip. They hugged for close to half a minute until the Froakie broke the hug with the Fennekin, and he started to whisper to her now in case it was more calming.

"It's really late now, and we've gotten quite far away from that base… not to mention, it blew up. I think we need to get some rest, what do you say?" Britney looked down at Greg's injury that she had inflicted. "But… your hand…" Greg shook his hand and hit it behind his back. "I'll be fine, please, don't worry about me. Let's just get some sleep." Britney was speechless at her brother's courage, and gave him a small nod while she looked around for a good spot to sleep, and eventually settled in a nearby berry bush. She was also quite hungry, and wanted to use this opportunity to eat. As they both went inside it, Greg could tell she was hungry as she hadn't actually eaten anything all day, even while they were at their house, she skipped on breakfast, lunch and dinner today. He picked off some fruit for them both to eat, eating one berry for himself and then holding up several berries for Britney to eat in his hands, since she certainly couldn't hold them up herself now. After eating five berries and with one final gulp, she looked down somberly and tiredly at the dirt ground just below them, sighing loudly as she was already missing her bed. "Sorry, but it's the best we got." Greg laid down first on his side, facing Britney who got down second, lying surprisingly close to the Froakie. "Hey… um… Greg?" Her gaze turned up to meet his eyes as he too shared a gaze with her. "Yeah, sis?" It was at this point that Britney started to look a bit more calm, though all was certainly not right with her yet. Her breathing was still a bit hard and uneasy, but she tried to slow it down. "P-please, keep your promise…" Greg simply nodded at her words, which caused a faint smile to show on her face, as they both closed their eyes and dozed off into a heavy slumber.

In several hours, the sun was now shining radiantly through the sky, cutting through the thick trees and getting to the ground down below, illuminating the forest in such a way that Greg and Britney had never seen before. Too bad, they were both sleeping in and couldn't see the gorgeous sight beyond the berry bush they were hiding in. However, they weren't asleep for very long, as the sound of a foot snapping a twig woke up the highly alert and protective toad. Greg even got into a fighter's stance inside the bush, blinking a few times before realizing no one was attacking him. He sighed as he peered out of a small opening that gave him great vision of his surroundings while keeping him nice and hidden. After peeking to the right of the nearby footpath that just so happened to be beside the bush, which they of course didn't notice yesterday night, Froakie spotted a man who seemed to be wearing scientist scrubs. His first thought was obviously that it was a surviving Team Rocket researcher, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to have the Team Rocket crest stitched into the fabric. And from the way he was dressed and how he looked, he certainly didn't look like any of the scientists he remembered.

The mysterious man had a stylish black haircut, a blue shirt with a flashy collar, designer jeans and shoes and a rather fancy belt. Greg no longer thought he was from Team Rocket, but still quite couldn't pinpoint who he was until a few seconds later, he was now much closer. Greg finally recognized the man; Professor Sycamore, the Kalos region's top name in Pokemon research. As he got closer, Greg disappeared completely into the bush, and Sycamore walked past and didn't assume a thing. However, Britney soon woke up from a sneeze, which the Professor managed to hear, stopping dead in his tracks. Greg eeped and tried to stay as quiet as possible, while Britney looked at him in a confused manner. "What are you-" Greg cut her off by placing his hand on her mouth, while frantically signing to her that someone was close by. She nodded and stayed quiet, but that didn't stop Sycamore from looking around his surroundings while letting loose a declaration. "Alright, whoever is it out there, if you're following me, come out now!" Greg initially tried to hide from him, but then got an idea. Without saying a word, he hopped out of the bush, causing Britney to go into a bit of a panic. "What are you doing?! Get back in here!" She uttered in whispers as Sycamore took notice of the Froakie, and the first thing that got his attention was his injuries, noticing the bite marks on his hand.

"Oh… dear me, are you hurt, my friend?" Greg had known about Sycamore from the local newspapers his father would occasionally bring home from work, and he took a great interest in his research findings. He knew that he was a person he could trust, as he had very benign views of Pokemon. He turned to the bush and gestured with his fingers for Britney to come out. "Come on, I know this person, we can trust them." Staring through an opening in the bush at her older brother, she didn't have much of a choice but listen to him, as she slowly came out of the bush with slumped down ears to clearly express her reluctance. Sycamore had taken a step closer once the Fennekin appeared, clearly showing some interest in the two. "I have never seen a Froakie and a Fennekin so close in the wild before…" Slowly, he started to approach them both, which made Britney back away fearfully at first, but Greg managed to stop her from going too far, standing fast as he approached them and crouched down to get a better look at them. "You don't have to be scared of me, I'm your friend." This was mostly aimed at Britney, still showing signs of fear from her shaking legs. She was never used to being face to face with older people except her parents, and the overwhelming sense of being very small was getting to her. Greg simply gave him a croak along with a smile to show that they meant no harm, which caused the Professor to smile back.

"I wouldn't expect Pokemon like you to be in a forest like this, are you lost?" Greg nodded, then turned to face Britney, who also then nodded. "That's a shame, you're both so far away from your homes, but, I have a better idea. Would you two like to come with me? I see that Froakie is quite injured, and I promise I'll get him fixed up at a Pokemon Center in Santalune City. After that, if you want, you can either come back to this forest, or I can take you back to your natural homes. Or, perhaps you would like to come stay with me at my lab in Lumiose City? It always gets quite lonely there, what with my wife being so busy and usually out and about." He chuckled a bit to himself, and watched the two decide. Greg was certainly intent on going with him, but one glance at Britney showed she was very unsure. Turning to face her, the two Pokemon had a discussion about what to do. "Sis, I promise we can trust him. He can get us far away from this place, away from any trace of Team Rocket, and if we stay at his lab, at least we'll have a roof over our heads." Britney breathed rather erratically again, as all she wanted to do was go back to her real home. But she slowly began to accept that that simply wasn't an option. Sighing, she finally nodded as well.

"Ahh! So, you would like to come with me?" Greg nodded as well, holding up his hand and extending all three of his fingers. "Three? Hmm… ah! Option three? So, you would like to come to my lab?" Greg nodded once again, and Sycamore was happy to hear their decision. "Please, come this way. My car is at the edge of the forest, and I came here after hearing a rather… unpleasant rumor that I just had to investigate. But, that isn't important. Let's get you healed up, Froakie." He scooped up Froakie into his arms along with Fennekin, leaned back up into a straight posture, and continued on his way. Greg wouldn't know for sure if this would help or hinder their quest to gain their original bodies in the long run, but at least it gave him and Britney something they could have which he assumed would be quite rare in the time to come; moments of peace. Greg was just about to speak to his sister again, until he realized she had already fallen back asleep, clearly quite exhausted still from last night. He shrugged, looked up at Sycamore, and decided to doze off as well, finally feeling like he was safe enough to do so. Professor Sycamore's timing felt too good to be true, but if this part was a dream, it was certainly one he didn't want to be pinched in.

"Sleep well, friends. Let's go home."


	2. Chapter II - The Gateway

"...Aaaaand welcome back to Kalos Rock Radio! As our lovely weather girl said, we got clear skies and plenty of sun for today's forecast! Perfect for cruisin' along Kalos' vast freeways in a convertible, especially if you're blasting our tunes! Speaking of which, it's time to return to another round of nonstop rock n' roll, courtesy of some old classics…"

Professor Sycamore's radio was blaring quite bombastically, and just as the radio suggested, his vehicle of choice was a convertible, an old school sports car to be exact, which must've dated back several decades ago. His taste in music and cars seemed to strikingly clash, or perhaps this chaotic mix was his aesthetic. As his fingers tapped the steering wheel in rhythm with the beats and his hair flailed to the wind rushing against him, Greg's nap was interrupted by all the sounds of music, cars and wind, who was sat down in the front seat by Sycamore when he fell asleep earlier when the Professor first found him. The Froakie lazily opened his eyes and blinked a few times while rubbing away the tiredness in them, and started to take a gander at his new surroundings. Above was a pure blue sky with not a single cloud in sight, with many bird Pokemon flying overhead, and around him was a plush leather seat amongst all the car's metal. He gazed to his left to be greeted by a rather cheerful Sycamore, still absorbed into his little musical world. He also seemed to be wearing some designer sunglasses now, no doubt due to the sun's intense rays that noon.

Greg let out a surprisingly loud yawn which managed to catch the man's attention, snapping his view to the toad. "Oh! Uh… hold on…" Back to the radio, he turned a knob to the left, which drastically reduced the volume of the radio until it was now just able to be heard among the loud wind rushing past the vehicle. "My apologizes if you wanted to rest some more, music like that is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine…" Sycamore chuckled as he quickly put his eyes back on the road. Greg honestly didn't mind, for he too was quite the fan of some good ol' rock music, but as he started to stretch his limbs out, he noticed a bandage on his injured hand that felt weightless and without itch. He also no longer felt any significant pain erupting from the wound, just a minor stinging sensation. "Ah, I took the liberty of stopping off at Santalune City to get you patched up at the local Pokemon Center, all while you were asleep, no less!" Sycamore then quickly glanced behind himself at the back seats, which got Greg to do the same, and there was Britney, snoozing in the center seat. "Your friend's already been up and about, they even checked up on you a few times. You should go wake her up and let her know you're okay, eh?" Greg nodded at his advice, but sat tight until Sycamore came to an intersection with a stop sign planted beside it, and as the Professor slowed down to a crawl to let a truck drive past him towards the left, Greg hopped over between the front seats and landed right beside his sister with a bit of a thud.

He gently shook her back while his head was tilted to face hers, and after a few more shakes, the Fennekin's face clenched in annoyance as she was sleeping peacefully and seemed to not want to be disturbed. "N-nng… Sycamore, if that's you again…" Britney lazily opened her eyes and blinked a few times before her vision cleared up to the point where she recognized a Froakie's face smiling down at her. "Guess who?" Suddenly, Britney's attitude perked right up, as did her large vixen ears, and delivered a swift glomp onto the toad's belly with her forehead. "B-brother! Brother… I-I was starting to get worried, d-don't ever get injured like that again, you hear me?!" Greg backed away a bit with his hands raised in surprise to Britney's mood swings. "I-I'll try not to! And besides, you're the one… who…" Greg suddenly fell silent as he started to realize what he was saying, but it was too late as Britney's expression changed to one of sadness and distraught. She thought back to the night where they became Pokemon, the night where the recently changed Fennekin had launched an Ember attack that managed to kill a human being. She was actively trying to repress those memories, but the terrified screams of Agent Echo still rang in her head, though they were at least nowhere near as loud as before.

Slowly, Britney's gaze tilted to face the ground, and quiet sniffling could be heard in the wind while a single tear drop formed and fell to the leather below. Greg now felt incredibly guilty, joining in with his sister in somberly looking down while his unscathed hand nervously gripped his other arm. After a moment of silence, Greg slowly approached her and crouched down so he was visible in her tilted vision. "I'm sorry… I won't bring that up again, if that's what you want me to do." Britney looked back up at him again, and nodded with another sniffle, while Greg pulled away and sat against the backrest of the seat, patting the empty spot beside him. "Wanna come sit with me, sis?" Britney seemed a bit reluctant at first as she now felt very guilty about his bite mark again, but complied with him as she laid down next to him, once again curled up into a circle like how she was when asleep. Greg could certainly see her stress, and in an odd turn of events, he tried petting her back, which did make her a bit jumpy at first, but soon enough the strokes along her fluffy back were calming. Britney eventually decided to rest her head on top of the Froakie's left leg, now uncurling into a slumped over pose on her body's side. The vixen closed her eyes once more, though she didn't seem to be sleeping, just resting her eyes. Greg's petting eventually stopped as he saw his sister become much calmer than before, and as his hands were now planted into the leather seating on both his sides, he gazed up into the almost featureless sky, deep in his own thoughts once again.

An hour or so passed, and the sun was now at high noon. Professor Sycamore had since turned the radio's volume back up, at least to the point where he could hear it with the wind being swept against his ears. As he hummed and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to match up with his tunes once more, he was failing to pay attention to the blinking light beside the speedometer, indicating that Sycamore was in need of some fuel. Several minutes later, Sycamore finally started to notice a performance decrease in his luxury sports car, huffing in annoyance as he glanced around aimlessly at his vehicle. "Damn… don't tell me you're finally giving up on me after all these years…" In his confusion, he mistook the lack of gas for the car to be breaking down, which made him quite distraught with worry since never before has he had to have the thing repaired. Finally, he managed to take a gander at how fast he was going to check the performance impact, but his attention was drawn to the low fuel light instead. "...Oh."

Sycamore was relieved to see that his beloved classic car was gonna last him longer, but a sigh would indicate to the two Pokemon siblings that he was rather irked. Soon enough, the sputtering grew worse until he was able to hear it over the music, which he eventually shut off, and Sycamore's ride slowed down to an eventual stop on the side of the lonely country road. Sycamore threw his hands up into the air, let out a sigh and slumped his head down on top of the leather seat. "Great… I forgot to get fueled up this morning in my haste…" Greg couldn't help but giggle, but he tried to cover his mouth to muffle it, while Britney simply gave the human a stare and a facial expression that clearly read as, "Are you serious?". The Professor leaned over and tilted his head back to shake his head in disbelief at the two, complete with a cheeky smirk. "Well, glad to see you two are finding this amusing. I'm going to have to walk to a gas station up ahead, I know these roads well."

Sycamore pulled the keys out of the ignition and stepped out of his car, resting his arms on top of the vehicle as he peered down at the two Pokemon. "Can you two stay here and keep my car safe?" Greg did a rather comical looking salute with a cheeky grin to reassure him, while Britney gave the man a smiling nod, and the cute Pokemon's smiles seemed contagious, for Sycamore couldn't help but smile back at the two. "Alright, my apologizes if I take a while." Before the Professor set off on his journey, he leaned into the car and planted his hand on the top of Britney's head and gave her a rather affectionate pet. The fiery vixen went wide eyed not really in fear, but in surprise and wonder as he reached over and began rubbing her forehead and ears. She was quite indifferent at the feeling at first and seemed like she was trying to ignore him, but Britney couldn't hold back her new Pokemon instincts very well, and soon gave in to the petting, smiling cheerfully and wagging her bushy tail in delight. Sycamore then planted his hand on the Fennekin's cheek, slowly rubbing it as she couldn't help but gaze up at his smiling face with a few awestruck blinks. "I can tell from your body language that something is troubling you… I may never know what it is, but I assure you, everything is going to be fine. I promise."

With two more pats on her left cheek, Sycamore left the two to their own devices and made his way down the road, which left Britney with a faint blush and tender smile. Greg couldn't help but lean forward in the seat while having a sassy smirk painted on his mug. "So, you do like being petted." Britney's face went from utter bliss to what she would've looked like had she eaten a sour gumdrop, turning back to look at Greg with a snarl. "H-hey, shut up!" Greg simply blinked once at her, then crossed his arms while one of his eyelids lowered slightly, as if he was trying to emulate a raised eyebrow. The cocky look he gave her made Britney sigh out loud, as she gave the frog a small nod. "I can't really help it, I dunno, it feels really nice…" Greg let a giggle escape him as Britney once again started to snarl, though it didn't seem to be serious as she then leaned her head down onto the leather seat, while her fluffy bottom and tail were raised into the air.

"You're gonna be sorry!" The vixen then pounced on top of Greg and started to play fight with the toad, swiping her paws against him, headbutting him gently and occasionally gnawing at his arms. Greg was completely taken by surprise since he certainly didn't expect her to be playful in the slightest at the moment, but perhaps Professor Sycamore's reassurance was a massive help. The two siblings had a history of play fighting when they were children, and Greg, being the nice brother that he was, would always let her win, and it seemed like this time would be no different. As for where this sudden burst of happiness came from, Greg didn't know, but he was certainly glad to see his sister genuinely happy since they had changed.

Up the road by a few hundred meters or so, Sycamore now had the gas station in his sights, even doing a little fist pump to himself as he started to speed up his pace from a power walk to a jog. No other cars were at the joint, which only proved further still how empty this road usually is. It makes you wonder why a gas station would even be constructed there, but nevertheless, the Professor made his way inside and walked up to the cashier, a rather hairy and burly looking man. "Excuse me, sir, my car ran out of gas a kilometer or so down the road, mind if I borrow a gas canister?" As he finished his words, the gas station attendant crouched down behind his counter and came back up holding a gas canister in both hands. "...That was fast." The man then chuckled at his bewildered expression while planting the canister on the counter. "You wouldn't believe how many folks like you end up in your situation." Sycamore couldn't help but laugh back at all the times people have came in asking for gas canisters that lead to the man simply storing them right at his feet, but he pulled out his wallet in due time and flashed a debit card at the card machine to pay for the gas.

The cashier seemed like a mind reader, for he charged him with a full tank of gas and gestured towards the pumps outside. "Just fill 'er up all the way, drop off that ol' thing when you drive past." Sycamore nodded, dunked his wallet back into the inside of his coat pockets and grabbed the canister, but as he made his way to the exit, he couldn't help but notice the food section. He skipped breakfast that morning and was quite hungry, so he made a beeline towards the refreshments, and grabbed a bag of chips for a quick snack on the way home. His thoughts then turned to the Pokemon traveling with him, and he wasn't sure if they have eaten anything in awhile. Just to be safe, he grabbed a big bag of premade Poffins for the two to share, picking out the Sweet flavored one. The burly cashier chuckled as Sycamore came back to the counter. "In a bit of a rush, I assume." Sycamore nodded while pulling out his wallet again, to swipe the debit card across the card machine. "I have two Pokemon with me back at my car, and I certainly don't want to make them wait too long." He nodded back while stuffing all the food into a plastic shopping bag for the Professor, handed it back to him, and Sycamore made his way outside to the gas pumps, filling the canister with gasoline all the way until it was about to overflow, quick to put the nozzle back into the pump as he resumed his power walk back down the road in which he came.

Back at the classic sports car, Greg and Britney were continuing to play fight, but it seemed the vixen now had the upper hand and had the frog pinned down on his back. With a playful snarl, she poked at his chest with her front legs which only seemed to tickle him, and of the two, Britney was now the one with the smirk that simply screamed sass. "Are you sorry?" Greg was faking his pain in a comical way like he always did, and simply gave his sister a nod, at which point Britney hopped off of his belly. "Good boy, hehe." She then stuck her tongue out at him, which prompted a pouty reaction from Greg, who then stuck his tongue out at her, and to both of their surprise, what emerged from his mouth was far larger than Britney's. It even flopped down to the leather seat, and as he was glancing back and forth between his tongue and his sister, Greg was able to tell she was holding back some laughter. He managed to swallow his tongue back into his maw, then gave her a rather annoyed look. "H-hey, I didn't know my tongue would get so big…"

Britney's laughter soon became giggles muffled by her paw, but all of a sudden, she heard a crackling noise in the distance which made her jump a fair bit, prompting Greg to drop the act. "What…? Something the matter?" She shushed her brother, much to his annoyance as her ears began to twitch and pick up the direction of where the noise was coming from. Soon enough, her gaze turned to the left side of the car, towards what appeared to be a rather thick patch of trees which seemed to stretch on for the entire road along the outskirts of Santalune Forest. Britney pounced up onto the top of the door, scurrying her feet to assist in her ascent and eventually had her front legs and chest resting in their intended place, as she squinted her eyes to focus her attention to the forest, twitching her ears on occasion to see if it would help with picking up sounds. Greg's much more athletic body allowed him to jump up on top of the door with one swift hop from his powerful legs, as he tried to hear or see what she was so interested in. Britney eventually closed her eyes to focus entirely on her hearing, and began to pick up more sounds of crackling, which made her shiver at the thought of what exactly they were. Greg turned to her and grew worried as to what she was reacting to.

"What's the matter, sis?" Britney still had her eyes closed as she spoke to her brother. "I… hear this weird crackling noise, coming from inside the forest…" Greg nodded and kept quiet once more, to allow the Fennekin to get the best listening experience possible, and after a moment, she suddenly heard all the organic sounding crackling came to a close, which made her open her eyes in confusion. "That's weird… I don't hear the crackling anymore." Britney kept listening closely for any sound that followed, and in a couple of seconds, she would soon hear something even stranger still; what appeared to be the sound of many wings flapping. The Fennekin blinked a few times in confusion as to what was causing it, but Greg interrupted her train of thought. "What did you just hear? Somethin' else?" Britney turned back to him and nodded. "I hear… something similar to a lot of wings flapping at once… I don't know, maybe I'm mistaken…" Greg let out a puzzled expression too, but focused back on the trees. He squinted quite hard to try and bolster his concentration, and eventually, he too could hear the sound of wind being effortlessly cut by slender wings, and it sounded like it was continuously drawing closer. They both started to get fraught with worry as to what was out there, but Greg's sharp eyes managed to spot something yellow amongst the darkness and greenery. It took him only a tenth of a second to also see what appeared to be two lance-like, steel protrusions.

This quick glance made him immediately realize what they were up against; a recently hatched swarm of Beedrill. "GET DOWN!" Greg shouted these words at the top of his lungs as he was in a rush to snatch his sister by the stomach and plant her and him back onto the leather seats, and as he closed his eyes to brace himself while Britney let out a shriek of surprise, a massive swarm of Beedrill appeared over the car, blazing past them with an intense buzzing noise deafening their ears. Greg slowly peaked back up to check if any of them had noticed the two, but as luck would have it, several of them had spotted the Froakie and the Fennekin cowering in the convertible's back seat, and began to come crashing down on them with their stinger's aimed right for the helpless Pokemon.

However, Greg's quick thinking managed to save them both, as he grabbed Britney's waist while she was still lying down and bolted to the door, which caused the three Beedrill that were about to impale the two now having their stingers stuck inside the leather seating. Greg opened the door with utmost haste, pushing it open with his free foot and leaping out onto the concrete road that looked quite brittle, as if it was constructed decades ago and hasn't had any new tarmac paved over it since. As Greg quickly placed Britney back onto all fours, he got back to back with her and assumed a battle position, complete with a threatening snarl as three other Beedrill joined the ones that were stuck inside the car, who all managed to pry themselves loose and prompted to surround the pair. Greg was definitely ready for a fight, but Britney was very nervous, and started to breathe hard as a result which had the adverse effect of heating her up. This sudden feeling of fire burning through her body triggered the memory she had of burning Agent Echo to death, and the tortured screams came roaring back to her, clouding her sense of hearing until it was all that remained.

The whole world seemed to slow down for Britney as her lips began to quiver, her ears and tail began to droop and after she looked down at her own front legs, was given a reminder to her cursed form that allowed her the power to slay a person in such a tortuous way. Britney's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was once again clouding her mind, and in the midst of their situation, she let out a shriek filled of despair and the deepest of mental trauma, and gazed down to the ground while also getting lower to it. The shout was loud enough that Greg jumped up in place, and turned back to face Britney with a horrified gaze, as this shriek and her slumped down posture could only mean one thing; a reminder to her first time using Ember against a living being. 'Oh, dear Arceus… not now…!' Greg knew at this point he had to do all he could to protect his distraught sister who was having such an intense breakdown that she would now be worthless in battle. He immediately started to spit out a fast barrage of Water Guns at the Beedrill that were closest to them both, trying to be as fast as he possibly could in order to keep them away as far as possible. Greg wasn't on the offense this time, he had to play defense in order to hold out until Professor Sycamore arrived, hoping he had with him some strong Pokemon that could turn the tides.

As he ruthlessly spat, punched and kicked at any and all Beedrill that dared to come closer, Britney was starting to cover her head with her front legs while the shaking was starting to settle in. The flashbacks to yesterday night were even more gruesome in her head than how they were in reality, with Agent Echo's skin and suit being burned to ashes, exposing her charred bones and ruptured, burning organs. The images flashing before her very eyes were nightmare fuel, and at the moment, there was nothing Greg could do but protect her from certain death. However, as time ticked by, his untrained, unfamiliar body was starting to take its toll, and he slowly but surely began to stutter in his battle performance. It wasn't long until he started to barely attack anything, and focus only on dodging, which proved to be unsuccessful as one of the Beedrill rushed right at him and pinned him down on the ground with its lance-like arm blades shoved beside his neck. As the insect rose its large stinger, Greg was completely frozen in fear until he let out a desperate cry for help. "B-Britney! HELP ME!"

In that instance, time felt like it had stopped for Britney, her brother's plea cutting straight through all of her distraught and twisted visions of fire and death. She saw a Beedrill with its main stinger hovering in the air, Greg consumed with fear for his life and attempting to escape the Beedrill's killer grasp and many more Beedrill above them both, some of which were heading right towards her. Britney had to do something, if she didn't do a thing, both of them would be impaled to death by stingers, but the fear of her own flame was holding her back. She couldn't move an inch, for the heavy breathing she was undergoing caused a rapid increase in her internal body heat, which only proceeded to make things worse for her. However, just like Agent Echo's screams, Greg's pleas rang in her ears for what seemed like an eternity, consuming her mind until it felt like her heart was beating out of her chest.

Her mind was a muddled mess, with many voices in her head saying it was hopeless, but among them was one that was telling her to act, to save her brother. And it got louder and louder until, finally, amidst her tear shedding, her head was quickly raised up and she broke out into a sprint, heading right towards the Beedrill as she let out a loud battle cry, tackling the insect Pokemon in the back hard enough that its lance-like arm stingers were forcefully removed from the ground. As Britney and Beedrill were careening towards the car, Greg initially smiled and was incredibly happy to see that his sister saved his life, but managed to get a glance at her while she was right above him, and what he saw was disturbing on so many levels. '...Not again!' The dilated pupils she had the night before had returned, and with it, her rage and blood-lust had emerged from deep within her mind, eating away at every fiber in her being until it was all that reminded.

Beedrill crashed head first into the car, and Britney quickly started to viciously claw at its wings, back and even its eyes, attempting to cripple the Beedrill to the point where it would be utterly useless against a single Pokemon in a battle. The vixen's desperation, her inner turmoil, Greg's despair and tackling the Beedrill all seemed to be a trigger for her sudden, much worse mental breakdown. Greg got up quickly and didn't have any time to calm his sister since he had other problems to deal with, such as the Beedrill that were all rushing towards her, but since had their sights set on the toad. Two of them had their arm stingers raised up and were mindlessly charging right at him, but Greg's lightning fast reflexes allowed him to precisely aim a Water Gun at one of them, landing a direct hit on its right wing causing it to come crashing down to the tarmac, with its momentum making it whiz past Greg and grind to a halt thanks to the car's fender.

The second Beedrill got splashed somewhat by the Water Gun aimed at the other, distracting it to the point that its arms were now spread far apart while still flying towards the frog. Greg took the opportunity to jump off the ground and raise his legs up as the Beedrill approached, drop kicking the insect right in the gut. His powerful legs ensured that the enemy was sent flying all the way back to the other side of the road, and both the Beedrill he was dealing with looked like they were too weak to continue fighting, both of them laying on the ground while remaining relatively motionless. Britney, in her mind ravaged rage, kept clawing and biting mercilessly at the now helpless insect. As it was trying desperately to escape, Britney sunk her teeth into its neck while it managed to run far away enough that it was now in the middle of the road.

It slowly collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and from being near death, and finally, Britney sealed its fate by jumping off of the Beedrill, and started to let loose a massive outpouring of flame that erupted from her muzzle with an animalistic screech to accompany it. It wasn't long until the Beedrill was completely wrapped in fire, incinerating from top to bottom with pain filled shrieks following shortly after the convulsions began. Greg and the two other Beedrill both stared at Britney is shock and fear, with the two alive Beedrill soon thinking it was a better idea to run for their lives. They began to flutter their wings and took off with the rest of the Beedrill swarm towards the east, leaving only Greg to simply stare at the radically changed, much more blood thirsty sister of his. Britney unleashed a non stop torrent of Ember for what appeared like forever, and it only started to dissipate once Britney was running out of air in her lungs to burn, sputtering and coughing as the flames eventually came to a slow end. With the Beedrill laying on the burnt concrete as a mass of charcoal, the Fennekin was huffing and puffing loudly after exerting so much effort, with Greg slowly approaching her from behind.

He wanted to know if she had calmed down, but if she was still in her terrible psychaotic state, he would be ready to try and subdue her if necessary to not let her bring harm to him, and more importantly, herself. With his hand held out slightly as he was now just a few steps away from her, he gently whispered his sister's name to see if it garnered a reaction. "Britney…?"

Instead of being faced with a Fennekin having a mental breakdown and a particularly nasty bite, Britney slowly turned to face him with the innocence in her eyes returning to her. With quivering lips, teary bloodshot eyes and her anger ridden face being replaced by despair, she slowly turned her body around to face her brother, and looked down to the tarmac as tears were shedding from her eyes excessively. Greg was completely speechless at the sight of Britney being possibly in the most depressive, anxious and fearful state she has ever been, and attempted to walk closer to comfort her in any way he could think of, however, he was interrupted by some rather chilling words from none other than his sister herself.

"NO! Stay away from me, Greg! Nothing good will ever come out if you choose to stay by my side and keep trying to make me feel better… it's hopeless! Completely damn hopeless!" As she gritted her teeth in malcontent and gazed down at the ground once again, her pent up anger and sadness was consuming her alive, and she let it all out in an instant by shouting out in agony. "What the FUCK is wrong with me?!" Britney's head was now skyward, her eyes tightly shut as she slowly grew to hate her new form once again, hoping it was all a nightmare that she would awake from once she reopened her eyes. Upon lowering her gaze down to the ground again, she slowly opened tear soaked eyes to be greeted with the sight of two yellow, fur covered feet and two blue legs that were very close to her now. She looked back up again and gasped at the sight of a crying Froakie, as Greg's deepest sorrows had finally surfaced and he hugged Britney's head tightly, and had no intention of letting go.

"I'm sorry… you didn't deserve to go through this shit. You can blame this all on me, I did this, it was my fault we're like this… Britney, I'm scared too… this is all so hard, I don't know if I can handle it anymore, just like you. But please… we have to get through this, we both have to be brave, and I really need you to try and stay calm, no matter how bad something gets. Please, for your safety… I don't want you to get hurt, and I sure as Hell ain't gonna give up on you, no matter what you say, but please don't ever give up on yourself… okay?" The embrace they shared, filled with sorrow and regret, was kept for as long as Greg could afford to share it, as he simply did not want to let her go in this time of desperate need. Britney nodded slowly at the last question he presented during his heartfelt confession, but at the distant sound of something heavy hitting the pavement behind Greg, they both jumped and looked at the noise in question, and it was none other than Professor Sycamore, who dropped both the shopping bag containing the food, and the gas canister, onto the concrete road at his feet.

His mouth was agape and his eyes were wide as he absorbed the whole scene, and stared at the burnt, dead Beedrill with shock and terror in particular. Leaving the goods on the road for now, he rushed over to the two Pokemon he was escorting and was quick to pull them both up into his arms, snuggling them both against his lab coat covered chest. "My friends, are you hurt…?" Both were hurt incredibly as far as mentally went, but since they were uninjured in the physical sense, and they both thought that was what he meant, Greg and Britney both nodded up at him, with all three of them having tears lightly going down their cheeks. Sycamore brought them up higher and proceeded to hug them both against his upper chest, feeling all kinds of guilt for not taking them with him and putting them in such a dangerous situation. "Forgive me, I shouldn't have left you both all alone like that… I should've taken you with me." Although he didn't notice it before, he certainly did now. His car's fender had a massive dent in it, and as he walked closer to assess any further damage, he discovered the back seats were completely ravaged by Beedrill stingers.

Britney felt like the damage to his car was her own fault, which made her tear up and sniffle even louder. She knew that the car meant a lot to him, or at least he seemed to speak so passionately of it before, but Sycamore was quick to deliver some words of hope. "Don't feel bad, please. If your life was in danger and you escaped without injury, that's what matters. And if you're upset that you ruined my prized possession, well, that's all it is, a possession. I would gladly let my car blow up, and I would still be happy just to see you not hurt." Sycamore's words really got to Britney, who looked up at him as she was honestly unsure if he was being serious, as she was in a very dark place at the moment. Sycamore broke out a smile amongst his sadness, which helped to calm Britney down to the point where she was no longer crying, merely sniffling and whimpering in his arms at that moment. Slowly, he set them both down in the front passenger seat as the seats in the rear looked much too ravaged for anyone to sit in.

Jogging back to the food and can, he picked them up quickly and ran back over to the two Pokemon while pulling the Pokemon food out of the bag. "Hey, you two, I thought you were hungry, so I got you this." He dangled the bag of premade sweet Poffins in front of their faces, and then put both hands on the tops of both sides of the bag. "If you want, I'll open it and you can help yourselves." Britney looked unsure as she felt very undeserving of any kind of gift, let alone food. Greg however, knew deep down that she would need to eat after pushing herself so hard again, not to mention he was hungry as Hell too. He nodded quickly up at him, prompting Sycamore to open the bag up and rest it on the seat right in front of them, leaned over onto one side for easy access. "I'll just fill up my car, and then we'll be on our way." The Professor grabbed hold of the gas can he planted on the hood and went over to the back of his vehicle, and on the right side was a small door that he flicked open to reveal the hole that fed his car with gasoline. He started to slowly pour in all the gas, and over in the front seat, Greg was poking his head into the deluxe sized bag to grab a pink, sweetened Poffin.

He reemerged with the food and turned to face Britney with it, who turned her head away in faked disgust. "I-I don't want it, you can have the whole bag…" Greg shook his head at her and was determined to make her eat something. "Sis, I know what I saw back there, and I can only guess it put a huge strain on you… please, you have to eat something." Britney continued to show her indifference towards the food by looking away from it and Greg, who was now getting more and more distraught and unsure of what to do. As Britney finally peered back at him, she let out a saddened sigh and walked closer, prodding her nose against his hand to grab his attention. "Before I eat anything… I want you to make another promise to me, okay?" Greg was all ears, and nodded to his sister. He would do anything to make her as happy as she could be, and hoped this promise would help. "I… I don't really feel like myself when I… change. I can't control anything I do, it's like… a whole new person just takes over, you know? So… Greg, I'm begging you… if that ever happens again, please do whatever you can to… make sure I don't hurt anyone, and… myself…" Britney's lips were quivering through the whole confession, which made her stutter and pause quite a few times. While her gaze went downwards and she closed her eyes out of sadness again, Greg's hand outstretched to plant against her cheek, causing her look up and open her drenched eyes to be greeted with a smiling Greg.

"That is a promise I intend to keep." Greg then pulled her in for another tender hug, one that lasted for quite awhile, until her stomach began to rumble loudly, causing Britney to blush excessively as she pulled herself out of the hug. " U-uh… I'll take something to eat now…" Flushed with embarrassment, she opened up her maw to receive the pink hued Poffin, which Greg held up close to her mouth as she took a small bite at first to get a taste test. She seemed to greatly enjoy it, for it brought a smile to her face, although it was a faint one, for sure. "H-hey, this is actually pretty good…" Britney took another bite of the Poffin, being much larger than the first, and after several more bites, she had gotten through the whole thing while licking her lips to savor the flavor. "Oh goodness… Greg, gimme another, please." Greg giggled at her new-found eagerness to eat, and he grabbed another Poffin from the depths of the foil packaging. Britney didn't need any help eating it this time, as she quickly used her front legs to snatch it from his grasp and the Fennekin ate it as it was sitting atop the leather seating. It would leave quite a few crumbs, but Britney didn't care about that right now. She really needed a pick me up, and these incredibly sweet Poffins felt like a miracle happening right in her her days as a human, Britney often drowned her sorrows in junk food and soda, and it seemed like that trait carried over to her new body and (partially) new mind.

Greg dumped a few more Poffins out of the bag and carried them over to his sister, then started to take his first bite of these delectable looking snacks. Luckily, they were very soft to allow the now toothless Greg to chomp down on them without too much effort, his thick frog saliva seemingly making the snacks melt in his mouth. By this time, Sycamore was now done fueling up the car, chucking the empty gas canister into the back seat as he hopped behind the steering wheel and shoved his keys into the ignition, twisting them all the way as his car roared back to life with a loud growl from the ancient, but still fully functioning V8 engine. "Ha hey! She lives once more!"

The radio was also fired up as it was already on before the car had stopped, playing a rocking tune which would've gotten Professor Sycamore in the mood to floor it, had he still been celebrating his younger days. Before he drove off however, he pressed a single button on the dashboard, which opened up the car's boot to reveal a folding metal roof that soon covered all three of their heads, perhaps as a precautionary measure in case they ran into more bugs. Greg stared up at his new ceiling in amazement, while Britney was surprised to see such a supposedly old car have an automated, mechanical roof. "Heh heh, this baby was the height of car tech when it came out. I think it still puts some modern sedans to shame." With a proud grin painted on his face, Sycamore began to drive down the road, once again on their way to Lumiose City.

But first, he had to stop by the gas station to drop off the gas canister he borrowed. As he sped along the country road he once walked upon, occasionally munching on a chicken flavored chip, Sycamore arrived at the gas station in a few minutes, parking under the cover of the roofed gas pumps. Just as he opened the door and was about to get out, Greg's hand had tugged on his sleeve just tightly enough that he would feel it upon moving away. Turning back to face the two Pokemon, he saw that the bag he had bought for the two of them to share was now empty. Judging from the looks on their faces, the Professor could tell they were still hungry, which made him chuckle a fair amount. "You two still hungry?" They both nodded while Greg was giving him the puppy dog eyes, and he kept giggling at their attempts to beg. "Alright, alright. I'll get you another bag. Just wait right there!"

Sycamore grabbed the gas can from the back seat and made his way inside the gas station, while Greg turned to Britney with a big smirk on his mug. "Told you it would work, hehe!" Britney managed a giggle too, which was interrupted by a rather long yawn. "Ugh… all that food made me sleepy…" Greg then gave her a cheeky look while rubbing his hands together. "More for me, then!" Britney then snarled at the toad before her eyes and stomped her front foot down. "If I fall asleep, you better save some for me!" Greg nodded while still smirking as sassy as ever, while Britney turned to the gas station, eagerly awaiting Sycamore to come out. Greg was very relieved to see that her sister's mood had improved so quickly. Maybe it was the food? Or the promise? Whatever it was, or even if she wasn't as happy as she made herself out to be, he was just glad to see that she's making an effort to try and be optimistic.

Several minutes later, Sycamore exited the building and hopped back into the car, opening up a bag of sweet Poffins on the way in and setting them down on the seat they were on. They both dug into the bad immediately, prompting laughter from the Professor. "Careful now, don't want a stomach ache, do you?" Closing the door and twisting the keys, he fired up the engine once more, and they continued on their way down the serene country road all the way to Lumiose City.

The sun was just starting to begin its descent as Professor Sycamore's bruised but speedy sports car was cruising along a highway with several other vehicles. Perhaps his quick merge onto the more highly populated and much more tree-barren road was due to paranoia of another Beedrill attack? Whatever his reasoning was, the Professor was just on the outskirts of the city, being stopped by one of the toll booths, placed on all of the city's major exits and entrances. As Greg and Britney laid on the chair with brimming full bellies, the toad was rather sleepy after eating so much sugar rich snacks as his sugar high had disappeared quite some time ago. The battle they both endured had also taken a large toll on their bodies, especially concerning the young vixen and her psychotic episode, and it was only natural that she was taking a nap at the moment, with Greg hugging at her torso lightly to comfort her in the Fennekin's slumber.

Greg felt like he was gonna fall asleep at any minute, though. With heavy eyelids that were having trouble keeping themselves skyward, it appeared he was going to drift off… had it not been for Sycamore loudly fumbling through his wallet and his car for some loose change. "Damn… I don't think they take cards, so this is a problem…" He was repeatedly checking his glove compartment, another compartment just south of his gearbox and the cup holders between the gearbox and his second compartment. After checking each place at least twice and coming up with no change at all, he looked at Froakie with a bit lip and a panicked look in his eyes, as if he was waiting for the toad to give him some advice. Greg simply shrugged at the man, for he too had no idea what to do, not that he could suggest anything in the first place. Sycamore gazed out at the toll booth as he was closing in reluctantly, with two vehicles already ahead of him. He planted his elbow on the car's open window panel and rested his head on his palm, sighing in annoyance and feeling rather stupid for never carrying even a penny of physical money.

"Merde… looks like there's no getting out of this one…" As the last car in front of him successfully paid and drove off after the bar had been raised, Sycamore slowly drove forward to the toll booth operator while adjusting his hair. 'Alright, Sycamore… play it cool...' He put on his sunglasses as he was coming to a stop, and gave the toll booth operator a rather large smile as he started to chat with them. "Hey! ...Um… you accept cards, right…?" The security guard was chomping away at some donuts while his gaze was mostly fixated on the magazine he was reading. He didn't seem to care much for his job, from the look of things, but he shook his head at the Professor's question. "Oh, well… I don't have any money on me, at the moment…" The guard still had his gaze focused on that magazine of his, and didn't seem to care much about the situation he found himself in. Frustrated, he dug his fingers into his hair while pressing the back of his head against the seat.

"Ooh, Ms. Sycamore's gonna let me have it for being late…" The utterance of the Professor's last name ended up finally getting the guard's attention, peering past his magazine to take a good look at the man in the car. It was none other than the famous Professor Sycamore, known throughout all of Kalos as the greatest Pokemon Professor of his time, though for quite a few women, and a handful of men, their main draw to him was his charming good looks. Sycamore turned back to face the man and they simply stared at each other for a moment until the toll booth guy finally broke his silence. "...Are you Professor Sycamore?" Blinking in bewilderment, he simply nodded at the other man, who peered back down to his magazine while he pressed the button that raised the bar. "I know what it's like to be late to your wife. Not a pretty sight. So, I'll pay for your toll today." Sycamore was incredibly chipper and relieved at the news that he was getting a free toll, but kept his composure as he drove off. "Merci, kind sir!"

As he got up to the speed limit once again, Professor Sycamore did a small fist pump at Froakie as he got back on track. Greg was in complete awe of his display of prestige. He knew the Professor was a famous man, but not to the point where even a low paid toll booth worker would pay for him without a second thought. Oh well, with Sycamore's fame, it meant Greg could get a free trip into Lumiose City, a place he had only seen in the black and white photographs that were in the local newspaper his parents would occasionally bring back. All pictures were in gray scale in order to cut down on the costs of manufacturing the newspaper, since it didn't have a very big audience to captivate. From the few pictures he had seen, Greg had always wanted to pay a visit to the capital of Kalos, but his family's seclusion made that rather difficult. His excitement grew as soon enough, he broke the hug with Britney by gently resting her on the seat and he jumped up onto the top of the dashboard.

"Heh heh, you like cities, do you?" Greg was quick to turn around and nod eagerly at the Professor, for visiting Lumiose City was at the top of his imaginary bucket list. Sycamore, however, was able to tell that he had never been there before. "Ahhh, but have you actually been to one? Someone tells me you've been in Santalune Forest your whole life, yes?" Greg was shocked he was able to deduce this information, but then again, he didn't know Greg used to be a human and didn't know the specifics as to why he was in Santalune Forest, so it didn't seem all that impressive now that he thought about it. Still, he was correct in most ways, and nodded at him again. "Heh heh, I've lived in Lumiose my entire life, so I might be a little biased, but it's the greatest city I've ever had the pleasure of staying in. Through my job, I've had to travel across many regions, including Kanto, Unova and so much more, to further my research with a hands on approach, to ensure I get the best possible results for any scientific test or experiment I may run, but trust me, nothing compares to the grandeur of my home… speaking of which."

Sycamore pointed to the front of his car, for Greg had been listening to him closely, taking a great interest in what he had to say regarding his profession, which distracted him from what was on the outside. Time seemed to have flied by, as upon turning back around, the little frog was stunned to be greeted by massive screens playing many different kinds of commercials, brightly colored stores that dotted the streets, more people and Pokemon gathered than he had ever seen in one place and overall just a generally very lively atmosphere.

Greg, along with the others, were now off the highway and had made their way into Lumiose City itself.

The Froakie was perhaps the most excited he had ever been, as he jumped over to the door and planted himself against the window with a wide, dorky grin on his mug. Staring out into the world beyond the glass, Greg absorbed all the sights and had a massive urge to just jump out of the car and explore, but had she been awake, Britney probably would've yelled at him and just generally make it seem like a bad idea. Sycamore chuckled at the overly-excited amphibian as he drove along the streets crowded with other cars, but luckily, not crowded enough to the point where it seemed he was going to be at the mercy of a traffic jam. "My lab, and my home, are still quite a long way away, sadly. Probably the only bad thing about Lumiose is how big it is. I've seen my fair share of tourists getting confused." Chuckling some more, along with the not so quiet atmosphere of being in a big city, caused quite a bit of noise that managed to travel into Britney's ears via the window Sycamore still had open. She awoke from her brief, but deep slumber with a massive yawn that almost went for 10 seconds, lazily looking around the interior with a look in her eyes that simply screamed that she clearly wasn't done sleeping.

"Ugh… ngh, could you keep it down? I'm trying to…" Greg of course interrupted her in the middle of her complaining by jumping back down onto the seat, causing her to bounce up lightly. "Sis! You gotta see this!" He hopped over to the door and assumed a piggyback pose in order to help Britney scurry up to a door. "U-um… okay…" First, she had a morning stretch by leaning her upper body forward and sticking her rear end out, and shook herself as if she was soaking wet to help wake herself up. Somewhat reluctantly, Britney walked slowly towards Greg, stumbling on occasion on account of her rudely interrupted nap and began climbing up and over him. She walked along his outstretched hands as they faced backwards, his back and the top of his head, allowing her to scurry up to the top of the door. Planting her paws firmly into the velvet, she gazed upwards and had her sights set on the lively city atmosphere. Britney too had never seen so many people in one place, but her shyness held her back even more so than it did with Greg, who had since hopped up onto the door's top along with her. "We're in Lumiose City now! Isn't it just… well, amazing?" Greg was happily gazing out of the closed window, absorbing all the sights there were to see, but Britney was starting to grow anxious for she had a case of Agoraphobia, something Greg and no one seemed to know about since they had always lived in seclusion, and it only seemed to be even worse thanks to her new-found smaller size.

Britney's ears were beginning to droop, her head lowering itself down so she could barely see out of the window and all four of her legs were beginning to shake slightly. It took awhile for Greg to notice his sister's panicking for he was taken in by the wondrous sights of the capital of Kalos, but once he did, he immediately helped her back down onto the seat, slowly, to ensure she wouldn't panic even further along the way down. "Something the matter, Brit?" Amidst a sniffle and rubbing one of her front legs against her snout, she was breathing lightly to try and calm herself as she gave the toad an answer. "I-I just don't like big crowds, that's all…" Greg nodded while hugging her torso lightly just like he had been doing before, hoping her spirits would be lifted even while awake. "Wanna just stay here now?" As she gave him a final nod, she slowly broke out of his hug grip and laid down on the seat all by herself. "You don't have to stay down with me, if you wanna keep looking…"

Britney let a huge yawn escape her muzzle, a clear cut sign she wanted to continue sleeping, but Greg wouldn't budge, and sat down right beside her, which only prompted her to fidget away a bit. He was puzzled and worrisome as his sister was making an effort to distance herself from him, but he was determined to get to the bottom of her behavior. "Sis… is there something you're not telling me?" With her back turned to him and nothing but silence pouring out of her mouth, Britney's grumpy attitude seemed to be without end, causing Greg to sigh in frustration and sit down with his back against the wall of leather behind him. As they both minded their own business for a time, Britney too let out a sigh, and slowly rolled her body around until she was facing him. "It's just, I hate having to rely on you all the time, okay? I don't want to be like this forever, I'll just hold you back, no matter if we're humans or Pokemon…"

Greg was taken aback by her words, even gasping lightly with a few blinks to match. She then got up onto her feet and walked over to him, flopping down onto her side right beside him while she stretched out and yawned again, her eyes lazily looking at Greg somberly. "I'm… still so scared, of what'll happen to us, I have no idea what's in store for us…" The Froakie knew for sure that she was scared of the unknown, but what he didn't assume was how it was eating away at her so thoroughly, as Greg had admittedly still barely thought of the consequences of being a Pokemon. After all, he had always wondered what it was like to be one ever since his youth. Greg had always seen the positives of being a Pokemon, but Britney could only view the negatives, and the two seemed to balance the other out; Britney would keep Greg down to Earth and help him remember that they've got to try and revert back, while Greg's much more cheerful outlook on the situation would help Britney feel a lot better, but it appeared Greg was out of cheer to spread.

Both were so very down in the dumps, which is something the Professor took notice of as he reached over to pet them both, rubbing both of their bellies with a smile on his face. "If you two are homesick, then I promise, I'll do whatever I can to make your new home a place that you will cherish." He held his smile for as long as he could until he had to put his eyes back on the road, which helped the toad and the vixen regain the smiles they once lost back on the country road. They both settled into the chair they were on and didn't do much by this point, simply gazing around the car's interior and at each other from time to time, as they were quickly getting bored of this road trip that felt like it was far outstaying its welcome.

Later, the sky was just starting to gain an orange hint, signaling dusk for the Kalos region. Professor Sycamore finally managed to get from one side of the city to the other, where his lab was located. It also doubled as his own home, since Sycamore was such a workaholic and didn't like to stray too far from his laboratory. He managed to squeeze his car between two others with a rather difficult parallel parking maneuver, sighing in relief since he certainly didn't want to get his car damaged even further. Flicking the keys to shut off the engine and swiftly pulling them from the ignition, Sycamore exited the vehicle while holding open his door for them both. "Come now, don't be shy. We're here." Greg and Britney were both in awe of Sycamore's opulent lap, its exterior being a flashy combination of finely cut stone architecture and modern looking angular glass work, the combined elements seemingly paying homage to Kalos' rich history while also representing the now futuristic look of many of its fine cities, with Lumiose being the best example.

Greg was quick to hop out of the vehicle, immensely excited to explore the lab of the world famous Professor, while Britney in her tired state had almost tripped against the gear shift, but eventually found her way out and landed firmly on the stone tile footpath below. As many others were walking the streets, she was reluctant to hop out at first, but she certainly didn't want to keep Greg and Sycamore waiting around forever, so as Britney came down, she immediately bolted towards the entrance of the lab, stopping only once she realized the doors had to be opened with the twist of a handle. As he swiftly closed the car door and locked it, he gazed down at Froakie with a smirk of mild amusement. "Heh heh, I guess you're friend is eager to go inside. Keep her company while I check the damage on the car, will you?" Greg was quick to nod in agreement, hopping on ahead to Britney's side to check up on her while Sycamore didn't seem to be in anywhere as near of a rush as the siblings.

"Crowds getting to you again?" The vixen just gave him a nod, sighing in discontent as she wasn't very comfortable with city life. "I think we'll be here awhile, Brit… you're just gonna have to get used to it. But don't run away from it like you did just then, okay? I'm there for a reason, you kn-" Greg was interrupted by the once quiet Britney, giving him a look of annoyance, but nothing of anger. "I told you I don't want to rely on you forever, didn't I?" He slowly nodded, reaching out to gently pet her soft back, for he certainly didn't want that annoyance to become rage, judging from her last outbursts. "There's nothing wrong with relying on someone until you gain the strength to let them rely on you." With two pats of her back, his hand was sent back to the ground beside his feet, and Britney was at a loss for words. She turned back to check on Sycamore, who was assessing the damage to the fender, for she really wanted to head inside. But with a skyward gaze that quickly went downwards, she let out another sigh as her silence broke. "...Sorry… I need to chill out, I know…" With a few light breaths, she attempted to calm herself amidst the bustling sounds of the nearby crowded streets, with Greg happy to see her regain the composure she seemed to be frequently losing.

Professor Sycamore's inspection seemed to be complete, as he soon walked between the two Pokemon with his key chain now getting stuffed into his coat pocket. He grabbed both handles of the twin mosaic glass doors, pushing them open with flare to reveal the foyer of his household. With two sets of stairs on both sides of the room that lead to the second floor, Sycamore ignored them for the time being and walked along the lavish carpet to the opposite end of the room, with the two siblings following closely behind him. "The second floor is technically my house, but don't worry, I usually have the front doors locked if neither me or my wife is around, so it's not like anyone can break in. Not that either one of us tends to get out much. But, anyways… I'm guessing you know what the first floor contains!" Upon turning around to face the blurred glass doors with a purely white frame, he opened them both up gently compared to his fabulous entrance into the foyer, and behind these doors were his entire laboratory, which was coated in a heavy white and blue tint.

Britney slowly walked in as her only past experience with a lab was back at the Team Rocket base, a rather painful memory that she would very much like to forget. Greg, however, was ecstatic with glee and excitement, his hands raised to below his chin as he stared in awe of the interior, rushing between Sycamore's legs and hopping up excitedly to get better views of all the lab equipment, his mind filled with curiosity for his idol's workings. Britney couldn't help but crack a smile, and eventually a giggle which she tried to hide with a raised paw, at his childish display, while Sycamore let out a bashful sigh as he felt quite honored at anyone, even Pokemon, taking interest in his profession. Walking over to scoop the excited Froakie into his arms, he playfully pet the side of his head while holding him close to his chest, allowing him a much better view of the surroundings of the lab. "Heh heh, you like my lab, do you Froakie?" Greg nodded almost instantly at his words, as he and his research had always been a huge source of inspiration to the little guy's liking of Pokemon. Sycamore decided to give him a tour of the lab, but not before a rather pouty Britney began to tug on his pants. If he didn't have to walk, neither should she, as the Professor scooped her up into his arms as well with a hearty chuckle, and gave them both a grand tour of the whole place.

"Glad to see you're both taking an interest in my work, you two. I have a feeling you'll like it here." Sycamore's lab had a small hallway leading to a large main room that was dotted with book shelves full of Pokemon related research material, all composed by the likes of researchers with as much prestige as himself. In the main room they had since gotten to, where even more books of Pokemon were scattered around, were a few study desks and chairs strung about, and a large TV screen on the opposite side of the room. A few potted plants that were fed artificial sunlight thanks to the UV lighting in the room could be spotted as well. "If you're wondering why I have so many desks in here, it's because I occasionally hold seminars and teachings here. Both of Lumiose City's schools, one primary, one secondary, have been paying my lab a visit once a year as of late as a field trip, and they always end in a brief lesson."

Sycamore had a slight pause to collect his thoughts as he gazed down at one of the desks. "...It fills me with such joy to see that such young men and women are taking an interest in the deeper aspects of Pokemon, I do believe we have a bright future ahead of us." He appeared to zone out for a little bit until Greg nudged his chest with his tiny elbow to bring him back down to Earth, the Professor soon snapping out of his reminiscence. "O-oh, my apologizes, let us continue the tour, hmm?" Sycamore walked over to the right side of the room to be greeted with an automated sliding door that split into two and pulled away to reveal a smaller room that housed many vials, flasks and a supercomputer among other scientific gadgets and gizmos. There also seemed to be a medical bay on the far side of the room intended for Pokemon, looking just as state of the art as any Pokemon Center. "Over here is my main research facility. I conduct all sorts of studying and experiments in this very room, and with one of the most powerful computers in all of Kalos, it's a cinch! Oh, but, don't wander into this room by yourselves, okay? I don't want to risk anything getting broken…" Greg and Britney both nodded, with the toad since calming down a fair amount, at least to the point where it wouldn't feel like he was going to leap from Sycamore's arms and explore the whole lab unsupervised, and the vixen was starting to take an interest in all this science mumbo jumbo as the Professor went on about it.

Across to the other side of the main room was another sliding door that lead them into a more wide open room that seemed to have a more pleasant atmosphere to it, with a sky pattern painted on the ceiling and with green carpet that was presumably meant to give the illusion of grass. It was a room intended for Pokemon, that acted as both a playroom and a bedroom. But it looked like the three were no longer alone, as another scientist was at the far side of the room. She appeared to be crouched down with her hand reaching down to the front of her, with her happy giggling filling the room along with what sounded like the laughter of a small Pokemon. Sycamore smirked cheekily to himself and began to creep forward, and as he slowly made his way right behind the woman, he cleared his throat somewhat loudly, which made the woman jump up in a bit of a panic and turn around just as quickly as she had rose, almost tripping over her own feet in the process.

It was one of Professor Sycamore's assistants, and a childhood friend, Cosette.

"S-sir! I-I didn't expect you to be home so early!" Her formal approach to speech brought a chuckle to Sycamore, a trait she had always shown to people of high status and fame, though he would always insist on calling him by his first name. "Augustine is perfectly fine, you know. Always has been." Cosette gave him a fast nod and a fast reply in the midst of her rather panicked fatigue. "Y-yes, Augustine. I was, err… just attending to Xavier." The Professor knew exactly what that meant as he peered over her shoulder to spot a very tired, very ticklesome Pokemon sprawled out on his back.

With a brown and green coloration, beady black eyes, large arms that were paddle shaped with three fingers on each hand, a slim tail with a red tip, two large claws that acted as his toes for each foot and four leaves sticking out from around his head, along with three additional leaves sprouting from the back of his head, Xavier was none other than a Chespin, and a pretty ticklish one, at that.

"Weren't you supposed to be tending to my research notes…?" Cosette could only nod at her superior's questioning, but at least had some good news to share. "Actually, I got it done just before you came back! I've been playing with Xavier since, the little guy seemed lonely, after all… o-oh?" Cosette was too busy focusing on Augustine's face that she didn't bother to look down at the new friends he had brought with him. "O-oh my! I didn't notice the new arrivals. Did you get them overnight at Santalune Forest, si- u-um… Augustine?" Professor Sycamore nodded with a smile painted on his face, eager to introduce them to his assistant. "Yes! I found this Froakie and this Fennekin during my little investigation of the area. They seemed out of place there, and I couldn't really put my finger on it until now, but I think it may be due to-"

A new voice cut across the room like a hot knife through warm butter, one that carried otherworldly grace with a hint of posh. "Poachers, dear?" Cosette leaned over to get a good view of the familiar voice, while Augustine had turned around rather quickly as he knew exactly who that voice belonged to; a tall woman with dark blue hair and an open button scientist coat with a light blue shirt was standing in the doorway with her hand planted against the frame, while the other was adjusting her eyeglasses. Much like Augustine, her fashion sense tended towards the extravagant, and this similarity in appearance and the golden ring on her right hand's ring finger, which perfectly matched the Professor's, caused the two Pokemon in Augustine's arms to both come to the same swift conclusion.

It was Augustine Sycamore's beloved wife, Sophie Sycamore.

As his wife came into view, Augustine's face was painted with a light blush, the first time Greg and Britney had seen the man be so flabbergasted. She started walking towards the blushing Professor with both of her hands firmly planted on her hips, and leaned down to get a better look at the two Pokemon her husband had brought home with him. Both of them were staring at her in return. "Hmm… a Froakie, and a Fennekin… certainly out of place in a forest environment." Augustine nodded while trying to regain his composure, but his blush always seemed to persist. "Definitely. If it were poachers, then it explains how those two got there, along with… the explosion a select few seemed to be spreading rumors about." Greg and Britney both looked up at Augustine, eyes wide with shock, as Britney didn't want to hear a single reminder about yesterday night, while Greg could've sworn that there would've been a cover up of sorts that made it seem like the event never happened.

But if Team Rocket's plan was to pin the blame on mere poachers, then it looked like they succeeded. "Perhaps the explosion was one of their transport vehicles being destroyed on the inside by some Pokemon they were taking? I'm not so sure, but one thing I can be certain of is that these were the only Pokemon I found that seemed out of place… I didn't find any Pokemon that looked injured by fire, so these two were either the only two that escaped, or every other Pokemon in those bastard's grasp had already escaped…" Augustine's teeth were slightly gritting as he looked down with a scowl at the two now worried looking Pokemon siblings, holding back a lot of his anger for unlawful men and women that would illegally house and sell Pokemon in the cruel manner they did.

Sophie intervened his anguish filled train of thought by planting her hand on his cheek and soon afterwards planted her lips against his own, holding the kiss for six seconds as Cosette had blushed quite hard and looked away. As the kiss was broken with a smile from Sophie, Augustine's blush only grew worse as he blinked quite a few times with a rather blank face. "Don't beat yourself over it too hard, darling. You at least managed to rescue these two, so be happy with that result." Professor Sycamore's left arm raised over to the back of his head as he sheepishly rubbed his hair while nodding at his lover. "Y-you're right, I got too caught up in the bigger picture again… my apologies, my dear." Sophie let a small giggle escape her breath as she brushed back his hair so she could get a better look at his eyes. "That's better… now then, you owe me for abandoning me in the middle of the night with nothing but a note on your pillow. How about… you make us dinner for a change?" Augustine's blush grew the most intense it's ever been yet, and he visibly recoiled in place with an agape mouth and widened eyes to match. "Wh-what?! B-but I have research to-" Cosette quickly flailed her arm into the air excitedly, with a rather smug smirk shown as well. "I second this notion!"

Augustine quickly turned back around in disbelief at his assistant, asking himself mentally what he did to Arceus to deserve this. Sighing, he slowly put the Froakie and the Fennekin down on the ground, petting them both on the way down. "Well, I guess this is where the tour ends. You two can stay here with Xavier while I cook these girls up the worst meal they'll ever eat." Sophie cleared her throat in a loud, mocking manner towards her husband, a trait she appeared to pick up from the man she married. "Wh-what? You remember what happened the last time I cooked spaghetti…" Sophie's eyes rolled while she huffed out a breath of air that blew the hair out of her face. "Yes, which is why I'm going to be giving you some instruction while you get through it." Augustine went silent, blinking just a few times before nodding, as he seemed to get burned so badly not even the strongest of Burn Heals could help him recover. Slowly standing back up with two final pats on the head for the new arrivals, all three scientists made their way towards the exit while Cosette had hung the door for a little longer to deliver some parting words. "I hope you two enjoy it here! Consider this place your new living space, and you've even got another friend here! You be nice to Xavier now, okay?" Cosette didn't move an inch until she saw Greg and Britney both nod at her, and as she nodded back with a smile, she disappeared behind the door's frame, with the automated doors soon coming back together to bring about a swift closure.

Greg had turned to Britney while he hopped closer to her, a big smile painted across his face in the process. "I told you I would make things better, and now look where we are! Sure, we aren't human again, and I… still have no clue how we'll be human again, but, still, in Professor Sycamore's lab, we're totally safe. We can trust him, sis." Britney nodded with surprising enthusiasm, her doom and gloom personality seeming to be taking a break for once. As much as she wanted to return to normal, she knew it would be a hard road up ahead, so she was at least happy to know that she was now in some place safe. "Y-yeah… I guess you're right. And… and maybe he could even help us find a cure!" Greg honestly hadn't thought of that at all, and perhaps he could, which only further bolstered his spirits. "He could! Well, I hope he could… but what got me worried there was how he said that the explosion was caused by poachers…" Britney had already forgotten about that little slip of the tongue from Augustine Sycamore, as her front paw raised to her mouth in concern. "O-oh… yeah, you're right… do you think that was a cover up that Team Rocket tried to spread as a rumor…?"

Greg was quick to nod in agreement with his sibling. "Huh… could be, I'd try to cover my own tracks like that if I could, but I'm certainly not Team Rocket. I've got no idea what's happening…" Britney's ears had briefly drooped in sadness, but as Greg stood there with a muddled and confused mind, she wanted to do something to help take his mind off of it and try to relax, something he had been actively trying to do for her. Perking her ears back up, she raised a paw up to his arm and held it in her loose grip while looking into her brother's large, yellow eyes. "Let's not think about that now… we should try to focus on the present, y'know?" The toad didn't say a word as nothing needed to be said, just nodding at her. Amidst their touching moment, loud snoring could be heard from the far side of the room, coming from the only other Pokemon in the room; Xavier.

He had since fallen asleep after playing with Cosette for a good hour or two, getting especially exhausted after being tickled to the extent he went to. Greg and Britney gazed at him with tilted heads, wondering what they should do, but made sure to whisper at this point. "Think we should wake him…?" Britney asked, while her eyes glanced between her brother and the sleepy Chespin. "Well, we're gonna have to introduce ourselves eventually, might as well be now…" Greg slowly approached Xavier, tiptoeing his way towards him until he got close enough to poke his belly, and while they both expected him to be a heavy sleeper, to their surprise, Xavier was wide awake the moment he was touched, springing up into his feet and assuming a karate-like battle pose. Despite being quite comical in appearance and generally non threatening, the quick action of the Chespin springing up and striking such a pose in a very a rapid movement caused the Froakie to fall backwards onto his backside, while the Fennekin simply took a step back.

"Back away, you heathens!" He seemed to still be in a mostly sleepy state, almost as if he woke up from a rather immersive dream, but as he took a few quick glances at both Greg and Britney while blinking excessively, he slowly set his foot down which was hanging in the air and began to rub the tiredness out of his eyes, gradually recognizing the two Pokemon as a Froakie and a Fennekin. "Oh… oh! H-hey there! It's nice to meet you two! I-I'm Xavier, what are your names?" Britney was able to pick up a familiar tone from Xavier's voice, and remembered how Augustine Sycamore sounded just then. She managed to decipher that Xavier's voice shared the Professor's accent, a trait that must've meant that he had known him and heard him speak for a very long time. Xavier extended his paw to shake Greg's hand, who did so after he dusted himself from landing butt first on the soft carpet below. "My name's Greg, nice to meet you, Xavier. And that's my…" Greg suddenly paused, suddenly deep in thought as he only just realized that saying Britney was his sister would seem really weird since they are completely different species, and telling him they were formerly human right then and there would seem like a tough tale to swallow.

So, he made up a quick allusion as Xavier was turning his head to his side, as if waiting for him to speak directly into his ear. "...Childhood friend! Y-yeah, heh heh…" Xavier was puzzled as to why he would need to pause for so long to muster up those words, but shrugged it off, and as the handshake broke and the Chespin made his way over to Britney, Greg quickly winked at her, which she luckily managed to see, implying her to go along with the lie for now. As Xavier got a closer look at the Fennekin before him, he was able to tell straight away that she was a vixen, and his attitude instantly changed from a nerdy persona into a complete head over the heels romantic. "Ahhh… my lady, it is such a pleasure to make your acquaintance…" He kept one paw behind his back while the other was being held out, leaning forward with his eyes closed. Britney simply stared blankly at the paw while a blush was slowly filling her face. She was flattered, true, but was she seriously getting hit on by a Pokemon? Her disbelief was shared with her brother as they both glanced at each other, but Greg turned away after some time, as if he was saying what she did was none of his business. He always did feel like she was old enough to find a date anyway, but still, what an odd place to find one.

As her blush only grew further, and the flattery was making her feel so good, she couldn't help but hold out her paw for it to be held in his hand, a smile soon getting painted across her face as the charming Chespin opened his eyes. "B-Britney. Nice to meet you too…" She was quickly becoming a nervous wreck, with Xavier's charm brushing off on her relentlessly. "What brings a fine lady like you to a place like this?" Britney was at a loss for words at this point as she was always quite bad at handling romance, so Greg stepped in, literally, by getting in between the two to interrupt Xavier's magic. "It's actually exactly what the Professor theorized, someone poached us a long time ago, when we were a lot younger, and while we were held captive together, we just… bonded, right Britney?" Her confused face seemed awfully suspicious that this was all make believe, but luckily, Xavier didn't pick up on it, and so Britney was quick to correct herself. "Oh, um… yeah, it was really rough…"

Xavier gasped with his paws raised up to his mouth, and glanced at the two of them before pulling them both into a very affectionate hug, perhaps too affectionate, as Greg and Britney both seemed to have trouble breathing at this point. "You two will love it here, I-I'll make sure of it!" The Chespin even teared up at their made up story of survival, as Greg was patting at Xavier's back in desperation for him to let go. "T-too tight, X-Xavier…" He finally got the hint and let the two of them go, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, another allusion to Augustine Sycamore. "S-sorry! I've just been… awfully lonely without any other Pokemon around… h-hey! How about we do something fun?" Greg and Britney were both feeling a tad sorry for him, and they were gonna be pretty bored in this single room if they didn't do anything. With that in mind, Greg quickly thought of something they could do together, smirking coyly as he had quite the advantage thanks to his agile body. With not a moment's hesitation, he quickly tapped Xavier on the shoulder and hopped towards the other side of the room.

"Tag, you're it!" The Chespin went wide eyed with disbelief at how he had just been so badly duped, with Britney starting to giggle uncontrollably at the prank her brother pulled. With a play, but evil looking grin on his mug, Xavier tagged Britney as he too made a run for it. "H-hey! No fair!" She quickly ran after Xavier, since she didn't think she would have a chance in hell of catching up to her brother, and so the grand chase began, one that would last them for quite a few hours, their giggles filling the room as Greg and Britney finally felt like they could relax, and Xavier? He was just happy to not be alone anymore.

Their harmony, however, would eventually be put to the test.

For it wasn't going to be too long before a trainer would begin their journey to become a Pokemon Master.


	3. Chapter III - The Onset

3 days have passed since that horrendous incident. And the world remained blissfully unaware, still. The rumor Team Rocket spread to cover their own tracks had been a rousing success, and soon enough, the news of cut throat poachers that would steal Pokemon, even from a trainer, inhabiting Santalune Forest would keep almost everyone away from the place, a secondary benefit that would keep others away from their now decimated base to further draw away suspicion.

As for Greg and Britney, well, even they were beginning to let down their guard.

It was a rather serene high noon in the capital of Kalos that day. At the height of Spring, the weather struck a perfect balance between hot and cold. Pure white clouds bedazzled the deep blue sky, with not a single rain drop forecasted for the day. Truly, it was a great day to go and enjoy the great outdoors, and that's what quite a few citizens of Lumiose City had just been doing. Of all those people amongst the crowd were Augustine Sycamore, Sophie Sycamore, Cosette, Xavier and the two once human siblings… or at least one of them. Britney still had a fear of crowds, and it certainly showed as she refused to step outside the front door with the others. Sophie and Cosette were already by the footpath, chatting with each other to pass the time, but Greg certainly couldn't hear them as the bustling city atmosphere made it rather difficult to overhear a conversation.

He was at the bottom of the steps, sitting with both elbows resting on his legs and his face firmly planted in the palms, sighing in an exaggerated fashion to show off his boredom, which the adjacent Xavier took note of quickly. Glancing over at Greg, and then taking a gaze at the top of the stairs to see Augustine attempting to beckon the stubborn vixen to come outside, only caused the Chespin to sigh as well. "Has she always been like this?" asked Xavier, starting to feel the Froakie's frustration. "Never knew for sure, since we've always lived in seclusion, away from busy places like this..." Greg answered, slowly turning his head back to take a peek at Augustine, who appeared to be having no luck. "...But I know for a fact that she ain't gonna budge. She's not very… adventurous, I could say." Xavier slowly nodded as he too glanced back up the stairs, and was starting to believe what he said about Britney. Nevertheless, amidst the chaos and noise of the city surrounding them, Xavier hatched an idea.

"S-say, you've been her friend for, like, forever or something, haven't you? Maybe you should go talk to her, I'm starting to think Mr. Sycamore's not gonna get anywhere…" With a few glances between the Chespin and the professor, Greg was starting to see no other option, and this seemed like the best one there was, as he slowly stood up onto his two legs and hopped up the stairs, taking one step at a time. As he got closer, he started to overhear Augustine's (unsuccessful) attempts and trying to get her to come outside. "...the matter? Are you scared of something that's outside the lab?" Britney had nodded with a somber look on her face, clearly showing off her displeasure at having to go out on such a busy day. "Hmm… okay, what exactly are you scared of? Please try to tell me, you're not exactly making this easy…" Before Britney could give any sort of answer, Greg was now right behind the Professor and tugging at the bottom of his pants to grab his attention, a tactic he employed that Augustine had since grown accustomed to. "Huh? What is it, Froakie?" Augustine had yet to come up with nicknames for the two siblings, which they honestly preferred, since they would rather go by the names of their species than have a whole new set of alias' to remember.

Greg tried to communicate through gestures as to what was troubling his sister, spreading his arms around widely in a circular fashion to try and represent their surroundings. Augustine was quite fluent in sign language to help him work with Pokemon that were capable of doing so as well, but Greg's overly simplified approach to it was certainly a lot harder to understand than perfectly precise signing, at least at first. Over the few days they knew each other, Augustine quickly got used to all of his body language, unlike with Britney who usually stayed in the playroom. "Ah! Hmm… our surroundings?" Greg quickly nodded at the Professor's answer and aimed to try and be more precise by pointing to multiple people in the Lumiose City streets, pointing to every individual head he could see. After a few seconds, he spread his arms out in a semi-circle towards the street, and after a moment, Augustine was able to catch on to what Greg was telling him.

"Is… is Fennekin scared of large crowds?" Greg gave him a slow, somber nod while glancing over at Britney who was as usual gazing down at the ground with drooped ears. He pointed to his sister while looking back up at Sycamore's eyes while croaking softly a few times, trying to leave an impression of talking, which the Professor luckily picked up on almost immediately. "As you wish." Augustine stepped aside and made his way down the stairs until he was sitting beside Xavier, and just so happened to have his elbows planted on his thighs while his chin rested on both hands, just like how Greg had been sitting before. Turning his gaze back to Britney, he hopped slowly over to her and didn't say a word until she turned her head upwards to meet his glare.

"Sis, I know you're scared of big crowds, but we need the exercise. Is there anything we can do to help you feel better?" Britney knew deep down that Greg and all the others wouldn't budge without her, and the longer she kept them all waiting, the more frustration would build up that was directed right at her. Perhaps it was simply her anxiety acting up for that last part, but nevertheless, the fiery vixen felt miserable for holding them all back for so long. As she looked past Greg and took note of the busy streets behind him, one of her first thoughts was to enter a Poke Ball, but due to her fear of the unknown, she immediately booted that thought out of her mind. The idea of being stuffed into such a small sphere and decompressing from matter into some sort of strange energy in a matter of seconds felt incredibly unnerving and uncomfortable, and her persistence on staying outside one up until now has been what's kept Greg and Britney out of them… for now.

Britney didn't see any way out of this as a saddening sigh escaped her muzzle, and she slowly got up onto all of her fours. "Could you… just stay near me the whole time? Please…" Greg was happy to grant her request and didn't hesitate to give her a nod.

He turned around with a hop and walked with Britney beside him down the stairs, and Xavier managed to hear the footsteps approaching them. He glanced backward and was happy and relieved to see Britney was now doing better, if only just a little, and his excitement caught Professor Sycamore's attention as well, who was quick to spin his head around to catch a sight of the two siblings making their way down the stairs. He thought of Froakie as some sort of miracle worker, wasting no time in rising to his feet and smiling down proudly at the toad. Xavier too jumped up onto his feet as Greg was being sure to stay close to Britney the whole time, even before they got onto the streets, taking each step as slowly as she was.

The vixen, true to form, was rather slow at making her way down every step as the last thing she wanted to do was fall down the concrete staircase, as she was quite prone to tripping back in her days as a human. This slowly made Britney very cautious in her approach over time, making sure she would take everything slow and steady, which Greg never seemed to mind, though just like now, she was always worried that he was bothered by how slow she took everything. As the Froakie hopped his way down to the bottom of the steps with the Fennekin not too far behind, Xavier and Augustine both joined them and headed down towards the street with the two siblings in toe, interrupting the two ladies who seemed to be reminiscing of their old college days. Augustine managed to overhear something about him, but judging from their laughter, he could only assume they were gossiping about some rather embarrassing things he did back in his youth. With that light blush washing over him as he approached his spouse, as per usual, they both turned to face the four slow pokes with warm smiles, and Sophie crouched down to speak to Britney as she got closer to her.

"Are you feeling better now, sweetheart?" Britney wasn't exactly feeling 100%, but she was certainly doing better than before, so she gave the woman a nod, albeit a small and shy one. Before she stood back up, Sophie planted her hand gently on top of the vixen's head, and gave her some rather tender rubs along the base of her ears. As much as she still hated to admit it, the once-human Fennekin greatly enjoyed the petting, even managing to make her tail wag joyfully and her blank expression becoming one of bliss. Cosette was taking a gander at the streets of Lumiose City just beyond the gate while Sophie was assisting the Fennekin with her mental state, and couldn't help but notice that the 12 PM rush hour was starting to take effect.

"U-um… guys?" She pointed out a bit nervously to the now much more crowded streets, with barely any room to walk along the neatly tiled footpaths. Everyone was looking beyond the gate with mixed feelings, except for Britney, who was starting to feel dreadful again as the large crowds only seemed worse from up close. Greg was the only one focused on something else, and that was Britney. She was biting her quivering bottom lip and one of her back legs were beginning to tap the ground repeatedly with no end in sight, and he was beginning to get the feeling that him alone wouldn't be enough to help her remain stable. He needed to come up with a solution quickly, as she had already been brave enough to venture out of the lab and certainly didn't want to see her give up just yet. And it wasn't long until he hatched a plan, taking note of how relaxed and happy his sister seemed to be whenever she was petted by Sophie. With how busy the city had gotten in such a short span of time, it seemed inappropriate for all three of the Pokemon to walk, too.

So, as usual, Greg hopped over to Augustine and tugged on his pants until he grabbed the Professor's attention. Mr. Sycamore already took notice of Greg hopping over to him, and he chuckled at the routine the toad developed. "Yes, Froakie?" The Professor's assistants and Xavier were also all ears, but Britney was simply too fixated on the hypnotizing passersby walking past the fence. Greg demonstrated his idea by hopping over to Xavier, who was quite puzzled as to what his Froakie friend was doing, but a huge blush was painted across his brown face as he eventually found himself getting picked up by the waist by the surprisingly strong Greg.

"Wh-what the…?! Put me down already!" Xavier flailed his legs around comically in the toad's grip, but Greg kept him steady as he gazed up at Augustine with a smile, and while he found the display amusing at first, Professor Sycamore was able to quickly understand what he wanted. "Ah, I get it, you think that it would be best if we carried you three?" Greg put the pouty Xavier back down on the ground as he nodded cheerfully up at Augustine, with the Chespin dusting himself off just as comically as he tried to escape his grip. The Professor nodded back at him, and looked up at the others to see if they agreed with the course of action, and as soon as he heard upon hearing the idea, Xavier immediately ran to the leg of Cosette and jumped up against her with his arms high in the air. "Cosette! Cosette! Carry meeee!"

The woman was flattered that the Chespin was picking favorites with her, and she wouldn't have it any other way. Cosette and Xavier have been inseparable ever since Augustine had caught him and brought him into the lab for safe keeping all those months back, and her frequent visits to the playroom when she should be doing work are quite the testament to this friendship between human and Pokemon. With a gigglish smile, Cosette happily picked up Xavier and snuggled him against her belly, being sure to give him a nice belly rub, as well. "Hehehe, I'm all set, Si- err, Augustine!" While the two of them were sharing some playful affection with each other, the Professor picked up Greg by his waist and held him up to his chest, giving the toad's cheek a little pat while giving him a content nod. "Heh, I don't know what I would do without you around, Froakie." The kind words deeply flattered Greg, something he certainly wasn't used to as he never really got a whole lot of it in his human body. Perhaps it was thanks to his much more adorable new form that made him so susceptible to the constant praise thrust upon him, and it was something he could certainly get used to.

But, as he gazed down at his sister fidgeting in discomfort on the ground below, Greg got a saddening reminder that their new forms aren't all fun and games, especially for Britney, who seemed like she was never going to get over her trauma, or her sudden fear of crowds. But much to his relief, once Sophie picked her up off the ground by wrapping her arms around her stomach and hoisting her up above her chest, she gave the vixen a playful belly rub, which really helped to take her mind off of the stressful inducing large crowds for long enough that she cracked a smile at Mrs. Sycamore, who was sure to smile back at the Fennekin. "Hmm… I know, I bet you won't be scared of the crowds if you feel tall!"

Britney tilted her head and blinked in both curiosity and confusion as to what she meant, but soon found out first hand as she was rolled back around to have her stomach face the ground, and Sophie placed the Fennekin's belly on her denim covered shoulder. Britney initially was quite unsure of the idea and flailed her front legs about, but managed to cling on tightly enough that she wouldn't fall. After receiving another petting from Sophie, this time on her snout, the Fennekin had calmed down quite a lot and kept her glee consistent, which only helped to further lift Greg's spirits. Everyone was happy with the current plan, and Augustine soon began his march to lead on, but Sophie stepped in front of the gate, stopping him dead in his tracks as he began to blush immensely.

"M-my dear! Is something the matter…?" Sophie merely chuckled at first, much to his bewilderment, but she gave her husband a hint by tilting her head to gaze past him, which in turn made Augustine take a glance behind himself. "You forgot to lock the door… not to mention, close it." Cosette and Xavier both laughed in unison at the Professor's mistake as he let out quite a loud sigh, while Greg was trying awfully hard to not giggle by muffling his own mouth with his hands. Keeping the toad in one arm, Augustine walked back up the stairs while digging into his pocket for his key chain. 'I could've sworn I closed this...' Perhaps his excitement to see Britney up and about caused the man to become forgetful, but whatever the case, with the door closed tightly and locked down thoroughly, him and the toad joined back with the others who had since walked out into the streets, but at least they had yet to disappear into the crowd.

The group made a stop at Cafe Classe for some refreshments before they headed out any further. It was awfully close to the Sycamore residence/lab, so it certainly didn't hurt to make the stop. The Professor and his assistants all got some rather strong coffee, for their jobs don't really allow for much opportunities to take a nap, while Augustine had made sure to get some food for all of his Pokemon companions, as well. Cafe Classe was well known for their gourmet Poke Puffs, so he knew immediately what he was going to get for the three of them. He was even such a gentleman that he ordered everyone's food and drinks while they all found a table.

Cosette and Sophie were seated and busy discussing lots of scientific mumbo jumbo concerning the current state of research affairs while Greg and Xavier had since taken a seat on the top of the table, both of them gazing dreamily at the menu above the heads of the baristas. And it wasn't long until Sophie put Britney down on the table to give her a few choice pets and rubs, only to join the other two at the menu staring once Ms. Sycamore had became enthralled in a rather in depth topic by Cosette. "Wow… they have quite a few things to choose from…" Britney had thought this out loud as she garnered the attention of Xavier, who got up onto his feet and wrapped one of his arms around her neck while the other was stoically pointed outwards towards all of the food on display.

"My lady, if you were ever starving, I would happily go to the ends of the Earth to forage food for you, food as delicate as the treats in this cafe, even if we were trapped on a deserted island!" As he finished his sentence, Xavier used Magical Leaf to spawn an enchanted rose in his free arm, showing it to Britney as he did a romantic wink towards her. Britney, as per the usual towards all of his wooing, was completely dumbstruck and silent at his flattery, as corny as it would seem to get, but Greg's laughter at how cheesy this next attempt was soon broke Xavier out of his romance eccentric persona and turned to face the toad with a flustered look of annoyance. "H-hey! I'd like to see you do b-better!"

While Greg certainly couldn't take any of his advances towards his sister seriously, which is probably why he's never told him to back off, all of his flattery towards her always seemed to cheer Britney up, so before he had a chance to drop it, she snatched the rose gently into her mouth, much to the surprise of both of them. She even gave the Chespin a playful wink in return once he turned back in surprise. "I'll take you up on your word, Xavier." Greg only blinked in disbelief as he stared at his sister with an agape mouth, while Xavier's paws were hanging just below his chin with a huge grin on his face, which helped to bolster his confidence to step things up a notch; with a kiss. Once Greg and Britney both started looking at the menu again, with the vixen still having the rose between her teeth and a mood so uplifted that her tail began to wag, Xavier started to pucker up his lips and inched closer and closer to the cute fox he had a huge crush on. Would this be it? Would Xavier finally manage to get his first kiss?

Nope. Just as he was a few inches away from her white furred cheek, Augustine had came over carrying a tray in each hand, the one on the left holding his and the girl's drinks, while the one on the right held on it a huge platter of Poke Puffs. "Order up!" The Professor's loud and unexpected declaration of the food and drinks being ready caused him to not only lose his focus, but trip over his own feet, falling down flat on his face right next to Britney's front paws. She recoiled backwards with quite the gasp that got the whole table's attention, as Greg helped the clumsy Chespin back up to his feet. "Did Professor Sycamore scare you or something?" asked Greg, and Xavier was quick to deny it with a shake of his head. "I-I'm fine! Th-thanks for helping me up…"

Greg could only giggle at his obvious lie, but dropped it there as he could smell the pleasant aroma of their lunch. Among the smells were a sweet strawberry scent not unlike the premade Poffins he and Britney had on the way into the city, a stench that felt like a pleasant spring breeze against his nose, scents that brought the boy to think of many tropical fruits, the odor of a hefty blend of chocolate and coffee and a final whiff of something that seemed to make him a bit teary eyed as the fragrance was awfully strong; spices. "Heh heh, you three hungry? Here, this is all for you…" Augustine lowered the tray in his right hand down onto the table right at all their feet to reveal a large pile of Poke Puffs all stacked neatly into a circular food pyramid. The smells Greg had picked up were all correct, as the platter contained sweet tasting pink Poke Puffs, minty green ones, orange colored and citrus rich ones, light brown Poke Puffs that were a beautiful combination of chocolate and coffee to form mocha and finally, dark brown Poke Puffs were among the pile that reeked of hot smells.

Greg had his eyes wide and his mouth agape from the incredibly large amount of food the Professor got for them all, while Xavier's mouth was watering and his eyes shined eloquently with glee and a major lust for food, and as for Britney, she was just gazing at the two boys and wondering if they were gonna have an eating contest. They always seemed to make a competition out of everything, after all, and her fears were soon answered. "I bet I can eat more spicy Poke Puffs than you without having to slow down!" Chespin puffed out his chest upon shouting this challenge at Greg, who seemed to gladly accept the offer. "You're on, pipsqueak!" Xavier and Greg both dove right for the spicy treats and began munching down on them quickly, with Greg attempting to swallow each one whole while Xavier nibbled at the Poke Puffs at speeds even Britney was having trouble keeping up with. Sighing playfully, she took a step towards the platter to take a pink Poke Puff by sinking her fangs into the top and dragging it over to her comfortable sitting spot before she started to dig in, much slower than the other two though, of course.

Minutes later, and Britney had comfortably eaten all of the one Poke Puff at her own relaxed pace, licking her fluffy lips and rubbing them with her front paw as well. But as she turned her gaze to the two competitive males, Britney couldn't help but shake her head from side to side while a giggle escaped her, as they were both already stuffed and their faces were incredibly red from ingesting so much spicy food. "Let's not… do that again… yeah?" Greg stated, his sickly feeling being as clear as day while Xavier was too stubborn to admit defeat, trying to get through another spicy Poke Puff to claim victory for this round only to hiccup which caused him to drop it. Britney simply dug her teeth into another sweet scented treat for herself and paid no mind to those two, as they got themselves into that mess. Professor Sycamore and his assistants all got through their drinks once the Fennekin finished her second Poke Puff, and Augustine went to get grab a bag for the rest of the food the Pokemon didn't eat, in case they got hungry later in the day.

Walking along the city streets in unison with the crowds, it wasn't long until the group made their way to the designated destination; Vert Plaza. Perhaps the quietest spot in the city, Vert Plaza was home to an incredibly lush public garden that housed some dense plant life. One could easily call the place a forest due to the large amount of tall trees dotted everywhere around the landscape, and the familiar sights, sounds and smells were quite therapeutic to both Greg and Britney, who felt like they were right at home. The center of the plaza was dominated by a single massive tree, surrounded by concrete footpaths in the middle of the clearing, and many were gathered here in the central square, with most visitors of these lush grounds were picnicking with their families or just hanging out with their friends.

Xavier was starting to feel a whole lot better than he was before, even feeling incredibly energetic after all the spicy food he ate, and Cosette could only guess that he wanted to climb that big tree in the center from how much he was pointing at it while looking up at her eyes. "I-I think Xavier wants to climb that tree again, Augustine." The Professor chuckled and gave her a nod in approval, and so Cosette didn't hesitate to rush towards the central tree with Xavier jumping excitedly from her arms once she got close enough. The rest of them soon follow as they all sat down on the circular concrete fence that surrounded the huge tree, and Greg and Britney initially stayed in Mr. and Mrs. Sycamore's arms respectively, they were both encouraged to play with Xavier by all three of the researchers.

"I bet Xavier would appreciate some play mates, and who knows? Maybe Froakie here could climb it faster." Augustine knew just how competitive those two can be, and knew for certain that that would at least be enough to get him out and about, and it worked, for Greg suddenly had a smug and cheeky smirk painted on his face as he leaped out of the Professor's arms and started climbing the tree to race Xavier to the top, while Britney crawled out of Sophie's grip and hung out at around the base of the tree, where a few twigs were strewn about. She knew that Fennekins like her unfortunate self mainly had a diet of sticks, and as unappealing as it seemed, she decided it would be best to take a bite of one anyway. 'Well… might as well get used to this, just in case...' Britney sighed as she grabbed a twig in her teeth and started to chew on it, but not before wiping away any dirt on it with one of her front feet.

Finally, with time to themselves, both Cosette and Augustine thought they had some time to relax, each having a small stretch while they were seated, but Sophie had given her husband a glare which he took notice of, and of course started to blush quite a bit. "Y-yes, dear?" He wasn't too sure what he had done to have the look of malcontent painted across her face, but he would soon get his answer as a rather serious topic arose. "Darling… why haven't you told Froakie and Fennekin about the Starter Pokemon Program?" Augustine blinked with wide open eyes, his mouth struggling to find words as it hung slightly open in bewilderment.

Cosette, too, was curious as to why he held off on telling the new Pokemon, and leaned in to listen in on their conversation. As he gazed down to the ground and let out a shame-filled sigh, he slowly rose to his feet and turned around to face the two women, stuttering a little while he picked his words. "I… well, you've seen how inseparable the three of them are, especially concerning that Froakie and that Fennekin…" He paused for a second here, taking a glance at both Greg and Britney, the former now sitting in one of the tree branches along with Xavier, while the latter was continuing to munch on twigs, and much to her surprise, she seemed to be enjoying it.

"I can't quite put my finger on it, but… those two, their bond is unlike any other I have ever seen. It goes beyond being best friends, or even lovers… it feels like… a family bond."

Sophie and Cosette, although they had spent far less time than Augustine with Greg and Britney, thanks to him being the one that found them, could certainly see what he was talking about. The Froakie had always been so protective and kind hearted to the Fennekin in the entire time they've been at the lab, and vice versa at times. And Ms. Sycamore was beginning to pick up on where her husband was going with this. "So… you didn't want to shock them with the news that they could have a chance to be separated?" The Professor gave his wife a rather somber nod, but was starting to see the error in his ways that Sophie was most likely going to bring up. "While this may have let them be happy for longer, it'll also make it all the more shocking when they find out… I had never thought of it that way, my sincerest apologies, Sophie…"

Augustine was feeling so distraught that he closed his eyes and looked away from his spouse, feeling so stupid and ashamed for doing what he had done up until now, but as he turned back to her with eyes wide open once more, Augustine was surprised to see that she had since stood up and walked right in front of him, that look of displeasure now replaced with a somber expression. "You just wanted them to not worry about anything… it's alright, but when we get home tonight, you better tell them about SPP, okay? We have a trainer scheduled to pick one of them up tomorrow morning, after all." Augustine nodded for he already knew this information, but he couldn't help but gaze past Sophie to look at Greg and Britney, who all seemed so chipper and upbeat. She too gazed back to glance at them, and began to worry about how the news would affect them just as much as her husband was.

"Do you think they'll even be able to sleep tonight if we did tell them…?" The Professor's somber words rang through her mind and caused a rift in her judgement, as she too was starting to see the disadvantages of speaking of it today. Somewhat regrettably, she turned back to face Augustine and slowly shook her head. "I guess it's really too late to tell them now, we might as well let them find out for themselves…" He placed his hand on Sophie's cheek and gazed into her eyes, as Augustine planted a kiss on her lipstick covered lips while brushing a hand through her hair. "Everything's going to be fine, I promise." The Professor was sure to put on a big smile for his spouse, and she couldn't help but smile back at him while planting a kiss of her own on his cheeks. "I'll take your word for it, then." The returned kisses caused Mr. Sycamore to blush incredibly hard as he usually did, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly which was followed by the giggles of both Sophie and Cosette. Their little moment of romance, however, was interrupted by two tall young men, both of which had a Poke Ball in hand and looked like they were itching for a fight.

"Oi! Are you Professor Sycamore?!" The thick accent and loud voice of the hooded boy not only caught the attention of the Sycamores, Cosette and the three Pokemon with them, but quite a few people hanging around in the central square, too. Augustine Sycamore was renowned amongst not just the scientific crowd, but the general public, as well. To call him a celebrity isn't much of a stretch, and the mere mentioning of his surname was enough to turn some heads. No one had noticed him up until now thanks to being in such dense, packed crowds, but this wide open space allowed him to clearly stand out. And so, a small crowd had gathered over time around the Professor's group and the two rather arrogant punks. "Heard you think you're a pretty good trainer… how about we see first hand with a battle, eh? You're not chicken, are you mate?!"

Sophie lost her cool at the rude attitude of the two men, and looked like she was about to pick a fight not with her Pokemon, but with her bare hands, but her husband was luckily there to keep her in check. Augustine sighed in a rather sarcastic tone, while he brushed back his hair upon taking a few steps ahead of Sophie, only to proudly flaunt out his arms as a taunt. "As you can plainly see, I didn't come out here for any battles, but… for you, I shall make an exception, for you need a lesson in manners!" As he lowered his hands back down to his hips and smirked confidently after delivering his speech, the second man joined in on the trash talk, who at least wasn't as hard to understand as the other guy. "Oh yeah? How about taking on the two of us in a double battle… with your woman?"

There's nothing Sophie hated more than being objectified, especially where her gender was concerned, and she probably would've snapped had it not been for Augustine's tight grip on her wrist keeping her in place and in check. Her head turned back to face his with a scowl that screamed of a desire for wrath, but Augustine's still persistent smile helped to calm her nerves a bit. "Come now, darling. Are you really gonna stand there and take it? I bet we could show these boys a lovely, humiliating defeat." The smile of his became a cocky smirk as he winked too, those words of his cutting into Sophie deeper than any simple insult could, and after a moment to think and regain her composure, she nodded at Augustine while he let go of her hand. "Sounds like a plan, love…" Sophie turned to face the egotistical hoodlums while she pulled out a Poke Ball from the pocket of her jacket, pushing the central button to enlarge it from the size of a ping pong ball to baseball size in a second flat, while Augustine took a few steps to stand beside her.

To excite the crowd, and to possibly make his competitors take him less seriously for the sake of dropping their guards, the Professor had shown off his Poke Ball with a flashy flare in his movements, scraping his left foot backwards along the concrete path to kick up dust and get him lower to the ground, taking the the Poke Ball out of his left pocket with a quick flick from his right hand, as if he was a cowboy unholstering his six shooter in an old school spaghetti western flick. Flaunting the since enlarged Poke Ball in his palm with all of his fingers extended, and the arm he was carrying it with was too extended outwards towards his opposition, it was held up solely by his thumb, and the devilishly handsome smirk on his face completed Augustine's rather pointless, but stylish drawing of his Poke Ball. The crowd began to roar out in support of Team Sycamore once he was done, but Sophie just chuckled at his silly display. After brushing the hair out of her eyes, she too held out her Poke Ball in her arm in a way to mimic her husband just for fun. "You never change, Augustine…"

Ms. Sycamore was the first to release her Pokemon, throwing the ball up straight into the air as it opened with a blinding flash of white light. The strange energy shoot down onto the ground a few feet in front of Sophie, looking quite skittish and unstable at first as it slowly began to take shape into a humanoid, but slightly pudgy and short legged creature. Standing at 3' 7" tall, the light began to become more distinctive in an instant, as the flash faded away to reveal a Pokemon with cream colored fur from face to toe, and pink fur over its head and torso that was shaped in a way that made it appear to be a jacket. With a large ball of white fluff for a tail and deep blue eyes, Sophie's Pokemon of choice was none other than Audino, drawing the excitement of the crowd as they set their sights on the Hearing Pokemon.

The two punks weren't going to be undone, as they both released their Pokemon at the same time. The taller, hooded figure unleashed a beast with a rather putrid smell, the foul odor erupting from the Poke Ball even before the Pokemon materialized, causing quite a lot of sickly looks and a few gags. Finally, as the light faded, the Trash Heap Pokemon, Garbodor, was left standing as it let out a might roar, which only caused more noxious smells to escape its stomach. The shorter of the two with spiked hair flourished the Poke Ball skyward much like Sophie had done, and as it burst open, the temperature had saw a sudden rise in the surrounding area, quickly getting everyone gathered there to work up a sweat. The light vanished quickly as the flame-soaked Pokemon within the ball let out a loud battle cry of its own, while holding out one of its blunderbuss-like arms at Audino. The Blast Pokemon, Magmortar, was revealed to any and all to see, and the permanent smirk on its face brought as much arrogance to the table as the trainer did.

The stare down between the two teams was intense, and it was only further amplified by Augustine's delay on releasing his Pokemon from his Poke Ball. 15 seconds after Magmortar made its chaotic entrance onto the grassy field, the Professor glanced back to the tree to spot Cosette and Xavier both holding their arms up excitedly to their chins, pumped and hyped up for the battle that was to come, but his sights were mostly set on the Froakie and the Fennekin. Greg and Britney were right beside Cosette and gazing at Augustine with awe and curiosity, with both of their mouths slightly agape. This was going to be the first battle between Pokemon Trainers the two were going to see up close and personal, with Greg having a slight understanding of them thanks to all the videos he would watch of tournament level Pokemon battles online, but Britney shied away from them and had virtually no experience with using Pokemon for sport. The proud Professor of Kalos stood up straight as he spoke his words and meant them for the two siblings. "Watch quietly… and learn!"

Flicking his head back towards the opposition, with that familiar smile that brimmed of self-confidence, he threw his Poke Ball purely vertically right above him, and out popped that same field of light and energy. However, unlike every other Poke Ball, an intense growl could be heard the moment the sphere was opened, which caused literally everyone to jump or get scared for an instant, with the sole exception of Augustine, Sophie and her Audino, who were now sharing the Professor's look of boldness. The light traveled upwards a good distance before it came crashing down like a bolt of lightning, smashing the ground with enough force to draw comparisons to even the mightiest of thunderstorms caused by an angered Zekrom. As the light faded and the concrete at the feet of the 6' 3" was revealed to now be quite cracked, it held out its arms in a cross-like pose across its face, with the large gray fins concealing most of its torso. It didn't have to hide itself in this fashion for everyone to realize that Augustine's Pokemon, the only one he personally possessed, was a Garchomp, and it threw its arms to the sides to properly reveal itself with a mighty roar directed at the two rivals standing before its gaze.

And much to the surprise of the two opposing Trainers, there was no notch on the back fin of the draconian beast, proving to them that Mr. Sycamore's Garchomp was in fact female. This, of course, lead to more sexist remarks coming from the hooded hoodlum. "Pffft, you really think we'll lose to a girl?!" Garchomp was unfazed, only squinting her eyes in slight annoyance at their taunts and nothing more. Instead, her attention turned to the Audino with her, and it looked over to meet her glance, as well. Greg and Britney were both close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation, as they seemed to be discussing a rather clean and simple battle strategy. "I'll handle most of the fighting if I can, you just focus on healing me, as per usual, got it, Alex?" Alex the Audino had taken a graceful bow towards the Garchomp, an affectionate smile painted across his face as he was more than happy to let someone else do the hard work. "Your wish is my command, my dear Gabrielle." The two were of stark contrast, as Gabrielle the Garchomp was rather rough and tumble on the outside, while Alex's graceful movements and posh manner of speaking carried a rather large hint of the rich and upper class citizens of Kalos, but they were one Hell of a team, as Greg, Britney and their unfortunate victims were soon about to find out.

All four of the trainers wasted no time in commanding their Pocket Monsters to do battle, their orders being shouted at the top of their lungs with as much ferocity as the attacks that were soon to be launched. "Gabrielle! Dragon Breath on Garbodor!" Augustine's arm had swiped across the air as his first order was made public, and Gabrielle did as she was told as her closed mouth filled with dense purple flames that partially erupted from her maw, indicating that the upcoming attack was going to be very powerful. Her head leaned skyward as she charged up her ferocious breath, and the young punks saw this as an opportunity to strike. "Garbodor! Use Gunk Shot on that bitch!" His finger pointed straight for the Garchomp as the Trash Heap Pokemon had already anticipated the command, and had a hefty Gunk Shot already stored and ready for immediate use, letting loose several purple, foul smelling bubbles from its reeking mouth. "Magmortar! Aim for Garchomp too, with Fire Blast!" The Blast Pokemon held its arms together in a tight cluster, and let loose a star shaped kanji of pure fire that flowed quickly over to Gabrielle, and combined with the Gunk Shot from Garbodor, it looked like she was going to meet a swift end, had it not been for another Trainer and her Pokemon that they seemed to forget about in their blind offensive; Sophie and Alex.

"Protect" were the only words Ms. Sycamore had uttered before Alex quickly sprang into action, jumping in front of Gabrielle with both of his hands outstretched towards the two oncoming attacks. And just as they were about to hit their mark, a brightly colored cyan field of light had separated the two teams from each other, and the bubbles and flame kanji clashed against the wall of protective energy causing it ripple like a stone being thrown against a body of water. "What the fuck?!" Those were the only words the owner of the Garbodor could muster, feeling incredibly stupid for forgetting about the Audino in his haste to take down Garchomp. And this proved to be the downfall of him, as once the bubbles of Gunk Shot had stopped being launched, Alex dropped the protection field while a rather smug expression appeared on his face.

That look of arrogance was well deserved, as Gabrielle would let loose her Dragon Breath attack less than a second later, a constant stream of purple and pink flames that carried with it no heat, but bone chilling cold, heading right for the face of the Garbodor, and thanks to being so thoroughly shocked by the surprise appearance of Alex's force field, wasn't able to move out of the way in time as the full force of the attack came to clash against its soft skull, the headshot causing it to cry out in pain and agony as it was blinded from the breath getting mostly into its eyes, as well. The force behind the attack even managed to knock it down onto its back with a loud thud, its misery only increased by how it couldn't seem to move, and when it did try to, it sure as Hell hurt. The Garbodor was now paralyzed, lying almost motionless on the ground as its Trainer simply stood idly by and clenched his fist.

He was feeling a great deal of anger and resentment at the Garchomp and her Trainer, but couldn't act on his wrathful feelings right now. "Tch… Magmortar! Try to keep Garbodor safe for now!" The fiery Pokemon nodded, and began to go into a mad sprint towards the paralyzed Pokemon to defend it while it naturally recovered. It let loose explosive rounds of Flame Burst from its cannon-like arms in the direction of the opposing Pokemon, with the intent on using it as cover fire, literally. Alex, however, was spurred on by another passing mention of Protect by Sophie, and kept the energy field up while running towards Garbodor along with Gabrielle right behind him. "Gabrielle, Dragon Claw!" Augustine's hand cut through the air once again as the order quickly fell upon the Garchomp, as the Mach Pokemon began to become enshrouded in fire that looked as bright and hot as the sun itself, but once again gave off no heat. Instead, her large, singular claw on each of her arms began to glow brightly with a particularly substantial amount of draconian flame coating the razor sharp appendages.

Magmortar had since jumped up in order to try and shoot over the protection field, but as Alex had gotten just a few feet between himself, Garbodor and Magmortar, he once again quickly dropped the force field and proceeded to slide along the dirt ground on his knees, bending his back just low enough that he passed right under the mid-air Blast Pokemon. What the hot headed Fire type saw as the blurry, glass-like wall had faded away was the sight of a leaping Garchomp pouncing right at it, an intense roar escaping her breath with claws shrouded in cold flames that had looked like they were now four times their original length. Fear had filled the heart of the Magmortar as it hesitated, allowing Gabrielle the chance she needed to close the distance and stab her massive two claws right into the chest of the Blast Pokemon.

An agonizing shriek escaped the now very wounded Magmortar, which only got worse as Gabrielle' momentum was careening them both forward with a large amount of force, the dual stab and pounce sending them hurtling down towards the injured Garbodor and crashing into its stomach with a powerful thud that shook the ground beneath the Trash Heap Pokemon. With that incredibly powerful double whammy, Garbodor had since fainted and was completely down for the count, but Magmortar was somehow able to hold steady, and in the midst of gritting its teeth in unbearable agony, it raised one of the arm cannons and shoved it right into the face of the Garchomp. Gabrielle was digging her claws into the Magmortar so deeply, that she wouldn't have enough time to pull them out and hit the deck, but luckily for her, Sophie blurted out "Disarming Voice," causing Alex to quickly turn around at the end of his flaunting knee slide and take a deep breath while setting his sights on the fiery Pokemon with the devilish grin.

He let out a high pitched screech in their direction which was funnily enough accompanied with large, heart shaped auras of magical energy. Despite it being super effective against Gabrielle, Alex's precision with the attack was completely and utterly unmatched, aiming right for the head of Magmortar, and once it found its mark, the Blast Pokemon felt like it had gotten a roundhouse kick to the side of its head. Their aim was thrown off, and their shot of Flame Burst ending up whizzing past Gabrielle' head by just a few centimeters, the flames dissipating before they could hit the ground. This turn of events gave the Garchomp enough time to loosen one of the claws from its chest and send a mighty punch down onto the Magmortar's forehead via one of her tough arm fins.

With one last pain filled grunt, the Blast Pokemon was left completely motionless after collapsing on top of the Trash Heap Pokemon's smelly belly, now giving proper time for Gabrielle to pry both of her claws loose and jump down onto the dirt ground below, and once she let out a might roar of victory with her head pointed to the sky, the crowd went wild and cheered excessively for the Sycamores. Augustine and Sophie both waved to the crowd with proud smiles painted across their faces, and their companions were left speechless and awestruck, especially Greg and Britney.

Seeing such thorough teamwork and synergy between the two lovers and their Pokemon was truly a once in a lifetime sight to behold. Never had Greg been more impressed by a battle, and he had been watching some of the greatest fights in recent years on the internet, usually from various top 10 compilations. The toad couldn't help but get onto his feet and start applauding like everyone else, knowing for certain that he'll remember this Pokemon battle for years to come. Britney, however, was left completely speechless and flabbergasted at how quickly Gabrielle and Alex managed to wipe the floor with those Trainers and their Pokemon. Of the few battles she did watch in her spare time, this was the one that came out with a victor the fastest, and both of their hype was clearly apparent in the crowd, for it appeared that their cheering would go on forever.

The crushing defeat left the two hoodlums in a state of shock, with the Magmortar owner greatly impressed, and not to mention fearful, of the power the Sycamore's possessed. 'Unbelievable… they really are some of the strongest Pokemon Trainers in Kalos… and they didn't even Mega Evolve their Pokemon!' The owner of the Garbodor, however, was far from impressed. Rather, he was incredibly pissed off, and started to angrily stomp his way towards Alex while it looked like he was ready to throw a punch. Alex was looking away from him at the time, being absorbed into the praise he was being given by the crowd, but Gabrielle managed to notice him before he got too close, and she roared once again, but directed all of her intimidation technique right at the young punk. The crowd was even silenced from the sheer surprise and volume of the growl.

The Audino was, obviously, completely oblivious to his would-be attacker, and started shouting over at Gabrielle in retaliation… after he got up from the ground which he fell down onto, of course. "Gabrielle! What did I do now?!" His puffed out cheeks and pouty expression verged on the comical, but as the Garchomp simply pointed above his head, Alex blinked and turned around to see the taller of the two hoodlums was now right in front of him, completely frozen in fear as Gabrielle had continued to snarl mercilessly while staring deep into his eyes. However, once her growling began to slowly decrease in intensity, he slowly pulled out his Poke Ball and returned the Garbodor to it, and immediately began to power walk back the way he came, with a rather large stomp in his step. He even shoved his battle partner out of the way during his frustrated walk out of the plaza, much to the disdain of Augustine, who shouted at the young man while he was still moving. "Learn to respect your teammate if you want to have any hope of victory in battle!"

His words seemed to fall on deaf ears, not garnering a single reaction from the sore loser, but the Magmortar owner was at least thankful for their time. He calmly stepped forward and returned the down and out Blast Pokemon to its Poke Ball, and gave a glare at the two Sycamores before he too left the joint. "Sorry for insulting you back there…" After being so thoroughly humiliated in front of such a big crowd, he thought that they deserved an apology, and as he delivered it, he followed in the footsteps of his teammate while tucking his Poke Ball back into the leather jacket he bore. With a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, Augustine turned to his wife with a rather cheeky smirk strapped to his mug.

"Well, at least one of them learned some manners." Finishing his words with a wink, Sophie couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh, soon joined by her husband as the crowd once again started to roar in support of the happily married couple. Soon enough, they both returned their Pokemon into their Poke Balls, and Augustine stretched out his arms, feeling them ache a bit as he was constantly flourishing them during the fight. "I think now would be a good time to go home, yes?" Sophie couldn't agree more, for the battle, as one sided as it was, made her just a tad exhausted, not to mention it drew quite the crowd that might have a few stalker-type people in it, all the more reason to head home. Sophie already began to walk off as Augustine signaled to the others that they were heading home, and caught up to his wife soon enough.

Cosette got up from the concrete seating while she was picking Britney up from the ground, taken aback at first for her attention had since elsewhere, but she happily laid atop the assistant's shoulder once her focus was regained. Greg and Xavier however, were both cuddled against her stomach as if they were plush toys, the result making both the boys a bit blushy. They began to play catch up as the Sycamores already started to make their way back from where they came, quick to try and avoid any crowds from then on since they were in no state of mind to be swamped with being asked to sign autographs. But they sure seemed to be walking awfully fast, to the point where she blurted out a request for them to hold up. "H-hey! Wait for us!"

Augustine and Sophie turned their heads in the middle of their power walks, both of them chuckling mildly in amusement at her slow speed. They took pity on her and slowed to an eventual stop, giving Cosette plenty of time to reach them with a few huffs. "W-wait for me next time, w-will ya?" The Professor looked down in a rather embarrassed fashion, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head as usual as his gaze turned back up to his assistant. "Ah ha… I actually thought you were going to get them all quicker, excuse me." Cosette's face was painted with a look of annoyance as her slack jawed gaze glanced towards Sophie, who merely shrugged in reaction. Looks like she was following the same logic of her husband, and this only made Cosette pout further.

Greg and Britney had since taken this time to jump over to their original handlers, the Froakie leaping into the chest of Augustine who managed to catch him just in time before gravity took him down, and the Fennekin managed to gracefully land on the shoulder of Sophie, nuzzling her fluffy cheek against theirs as she flopped down onto her belly. The sudden and unexpected nature of their affection managed to squeeze a chuckle out of the three of them, and they continued on their merry way back to Professor Sycamore's laboratory, wasting no time for any stops during the return trip.

Looks like they picked a great time to head home, for as it tends to happen, the weather forecast wasn't entirely accurate. As they got closer and closer to their home, rain was beginning to pour down from the now slightly gray sky, first beginning as a light drizzle, but soon becoming quite the downpour, but luckily for them, Augustine had the idea to start sprinting before the storm could thoroughly pick up, and so everyone followed suit and managed to step foot inside the lab before the rain got very bad. And from there, the rest of the day was just like any other. Augustine and Sophie both ran small scale experiments and research, while Cosette tried to do so, but couldn't help but join in on the fun the Pokemon were having in the playroom from time to time. Tag seemed to be quite popular amongst the little group, perhaps due to a combination of nostalgia, as that was the first game they had all played together, or the wide open and mostly featureless nature of the room made Tag a good game to play, but terrible for everything else.

Eventually, it was dinner time, and Sophie and Cosette made a huge meal for tonight, composed of a fancy pasta dish for Augustine, gourmet chicken breast for Sophie and a plentiful supply of deep fried chips for Cosette. The Pokemon weren't left to starve of course, and were all given a large dose of homemade Poffins. They were far fancier in appearance and much more flavorful than the premade ones Greg and Britney had back at the gas station, and it was apparent at the very first bite that Greg had taken, his smile upon giving it a taste test being the signal for the other two to start digging in. With some more research and playing thrown in in the wee hours of the night, it was eventually time for the Pokemon to head to bed, and it was Augustine's turn to put them to sleep.

While Cosette and Sophie were already drifting off in their own living chambers upstairs, Augustine was finishing up some last minute research for the night down in the lab, filing several reports on his findings. Professor Sycamore's main topic of analysis was that of the newly discovered phenomenon; Mega Evolution. This strange form of evolution is, unlike a normal one, only temporary, and only a certain number of Pokemon are capable of achieving it. Two of which are Garchomp and Audino, and so they are his go to Pokemon if he ever needs to run a test, at least if Sophie lets him borrow Alex. Currently, Augustine was performing many vigorous tests on as many strands of Pokemon DNA as he could to see if they were compatible with Mega Evolution. To do so, he subjects DNA to many Key Stones at a time, to garner any kind of odd reaction, and if the DNA changes in some shape or form after a long period of exposure to a Key Stone, then that means the Pokemon in question is capable of the feat of Mega Evolution.

Just as he was done with the last of his research findings and hit 'Save' on the monitor's interface, a clearly not tired Xavier had jumped up onto the desk the Professor was using to jot down his thoughts and theories on his latest findings, much to his surprise which made the man almost fall backwards from leaning in his chair so much. The recoiling made Xavier giggle quite a bit, which only caused Augustine to leap forward and get the little guy into a playful headlock, complete with a noogie to the top of his cranium. "How's it feel to be surprised, huh?!" They both laughed in unison, with Xavier trying to point his arm in the direction of the door, but his laughter sure was making it hard. The Professor eventually took notice and turned his head to see both Greg and Britney standing by the door, looking considerably more exhausted than the hyped up Chespin. With a confused blink and a glance over at his wristwatch, he realized how late it had gotten, chuckling nervously as he got up from his chair. Before he shut off the computer though, he saved his document again, just in case, and scooped up the other two Pokemon in his arms.

"Ah ha ha… it was my turn to tuck you in, wasn't it?" All three of the starter Pokemon nodded at the same time, in perfect harmony, to the Professor's question, and Greg finished his nods with a yawn which caused everyone else to yawn along with him shortly afterwards, including Augustine. "Sorry, my friends. Got a little distracted, I was on quite the roll with my research findings today." The door to the main research room closed automatically once he gained a fair distance from it, and the door to the playroom opened next as the suddenly quite drowsy Professor made his way inside. Being away from the bright computer monitor was certainly a factor in that, and he wasn't going to do anymore staring for the night, for the morning ahead of them was going to be a busy one. At least, that's what Professor Sycamore knew.

Finding the incredibly soft and thick patch of carpet at the end of the room, Augustine slowly got down onto his knees and placed them all individually on the mattress-like floor fluff. It was so soft that by the time the Pokemon had settled on it, their bodies had halfway sunk into the floor, providing a large amount of warmth and comfort. The Professor gave each of the Pokemon playful belly rubs before he headed to sleep as well, giving them all a warm smile amidst the darkness of the dimly lit room. "Sleep well, my friends. Tomorrow's going to be another great day, I promise." Mr. Sycamore gave all three of them a toothy, cheerful grin, which caused the other's smiles to shine ever brighter, and once all the Pokemon had yawned again to signal their incoming slumber, Augustine started to make his way out the door, with all their eyes closing by the time he reached the door frame.

As he rested his hand on the door, he paused his movements briefly, almost somberly, and his gaze turned over his shoulder to get a good look at Greg and Britney. They already looked like they were sleeping soundly, having a wonderful dream together that, if they were Psychic types, they could've shared between themselves. Even their smiles stayed with them as the slumber took them over, and this only made Augustine more and more distraught as he continued to glance at them. After what felt like an eternity to the young prodigy, his gaze turned southwards while his fist began to clench, thinking of how events in the next 24 hours will unfold. Would they take kindly to a new Trainer? Would separation cause both of them to spiral down into a deep depression?

No matter the outcome, it seemed to be bleak, causing the confused scientist to sigh softly as he began to walk away and head up to his chambers. He was hoping for some sort of miracle, like Xavier finally being picked, but the odds were stacked against, and prolonged thought only made the man more stressed of the situation. With one final glance towards the playroom door which had since shut itself, he solemnly whispered amongst the darkness as he passed the small hallway leading to the lab's exit.

"Froakie… Fennekin… I hope you will forgive me, someday…"

* * *

The sun was now shining ever so brightly along the horizon of the Kalos region, and one of those first early birds was Grace, a single mother who lived in Vaniville Town, the smallest and most cut off town in all of the land. Located in the most southern part of region, just ahead of the cliffs that separated Kalos from the regions beyond, it seemed like the perfect place to spend a relaxing vacation, for it was very secluded and offered very little to distract one's self from the serenity of nature and the countryside. Vaniville Town was filled with many early risers that got up and about the very moment they could, to seize and make the most of the day… except for one resident, who just so happened to be slumbering in the second floor of Grace's household. As the mother was busy washing dishes that accumulated over the weekend, she occasionally glanced over at the staircase every now and then to see if that certain lazy someone would hurry up and get out of bed.

"Sweetie?! Are you awake?!" Grace's calls would always go unanswered, a loud sigh being followed by each one without fail, as she was too busy washing the huge pile of dishes to go wake up the lazy individual. Soon enough, a Fletchling had flew inside by means of the open windows just in front of the kitchen sink and landed on the shoulder of the woman. "Hey there, Sugar." Judging from the nickname she had given it, and the bird's affectionate beak nuzzles against her cheek, it was without a doubt a Pokemon that belonged to Grace, and she was sure to return the affection by means of rubbing her smooth finger along the base of its chin. "Sugar, you-know-who is sleeping in again, and on a very important day for her, no less. Be a dear and go wake her up for me, will you? As for how… well, you decide." She gave the Fletchling a soft kiss on the top of its head, as Sugar nodded and saluted to its owner with one of beautiful white tipped wings.

The Fletchling jumped from Grace's shoulder and began its flight up to the second floor, by going back outside via the same window it used to enter, and it flew straight up to the second floor window that led to the room of the sleepy person. In this room was much heart and floral decor and designs, with the walls plastered in a pristine looking wallpaper of royal blue and pastel pink patterns, many plush toys of cute and small Pokemon strewn about on shelves, the floor and the bedding, and a few books lying around about how to properly raise a Pokemon, how to care for them and many other topics that a blooming Trainer would have to know if they wanted to stand a chance on a Pokemon journey.

And the owner of all those toys and books was still sleeping soundly on the bed as Sugar observed them from the window sill. The bird flew over and landed on the stomach of the heavy sleeper, as she was quietly snoring amidst the light breeze entering the room, a large Fennekin plush clutched tightly in her hands. Sugar quickly hopped its way past the plush and stood right before the face of Grace's daughter, tilting its head as to think of what it could do to wake her up, and its first thought and most tried and true method of dealing with the sleepy girl was to deliver a swift peck to the forehead. This slightly painful alarm clock worked like a charm, causing the teenager to jump up with a surprisingly loud groan of pain escaping her mouth.

"Oww!" was the sound Grace had heard down in the kitchen, chuckling quietly to herself while she shook her head. 'Oh, that bird never thinks of anything else...' Sugar had since flew back onto one of the wooden supports of the bed, which conveniently had their tops rounded to make them comfortable for an avian to stand upon. As it innocently scratched at its feathers with its small talons, the girl was rubbing tenderly at her aching head, who took a while to open up her eyes for she was certainly far from done when it came to sleeping. "Owwww… Sugaaaar…" Her pain filled moans filled the room as the bird had jumped from the bed's one of four support beams and flew out the window, back down to its owner's shoulder in the kitchen straight below the sleepy girl's room, getting a pat on the head from Grace as a reward for the job well done. With her daughter's attention, she tried calling out to her again.

"Serena! Get dressed and do your routine, quickly! You have quite the day ahead of you!"

The words of her mother fell on rather lazy ears, for Serena was still in a sleepy haze as her hands tried to rub away the tiredness from her eyes. In truth, today was going to be a very important day for the girl, perhaps the most important day of her life, but alas, she had completely forgotten what was going to happen today. Serena isn't always this absent-minded, but yesterday was her sixteenth birthday, and what a night that was. Due to the small scale of Vaniville Town, everyone seems to be acquainted with each other, and for a lot of residents, it's more than just merely knowing each other. A lot of people in the quaint place feel like a closely knitted together family, and so word can travel rather fast around the village.

Just about everyone knew it was going to be Serena's birthday, and if she wasn't going to host a party in her own home, you can bet that a party ran by the whole neighborhood would be right outside it. And so, almost everyone in the whole town went over to Grace's home to throw a surprise party for Serena's sweet sixteen that lasted until midnight, giving the birthday girl barely any sleep once it was all over. The celebrations made her forget all of her worries and woes, but also quite a few more things, from the look of it. She finally managed to get out of bed about a minute after she was pecked awake, stretching all of her limbs and yawning loudly while taking a look around the room for her clothes, wearing a rather cute onesie at the moment, but first set her sights on a birthday card from one of her friends placed on her bedside table the night before.

Blinking a few times as she approached and picked it up, Serena opened up the card and read the contents out loud, quietly. "Dear Serena, we hope you have a wonderful birthday and a great journey ahead of yourself… Tierno, Trevor and Shauna." It took her a second to process it, but her memory kicked in once again, dropping the card to the floor as her hands clung to her cheeks. "I-I forgot I'm supposed to get my starter Pokemon!" Today was the day that Serena would begin her quest to become a Pokemon Master, and it all started with the very first Pokemon she would receive. Her pace picked up dramatically at this point as she grabbed the card and put it back on the small table beside her bed, and hurried to find her clothes and all the supplies she intended to bring along with herself.

Serena dug through multiple drawers and cupboards to find all the clothes she wanted, being sure to also bring a few extra sets of clothing too. Amongst all the clothing was her favorite outfit; sleek and stylish thigh high socks of a gunmetal gray color scheme, sturdy black sneakers that looked brand new, a sleeveless shirt of the same color of her stockings, a frilly pink felt hat with a black band circling it and a pair of white sunglasses that she stuck on the top of her hat for now. Several other pairs of clothes were attempted to be stuffed into her purse, but Serena could only manage to fit in one extra set, a little upset by this revelation since she hated to be dirty.

Speaking of which, after she packed in most of her books and some other essentials, Serena hurried over to the bathroom with her heavy baggage in toe and began to brush her teeth, in a rather sloppy fashion due to being so rushed. Once that was done, she slipped out of her fluffy PJs and hopped right into the shower, blasting the hot water on and covering her body shoulders to toes in soap while she waited for the water to heat up. Serena kept flicking her finger on occasion into the stream of water to check if it was hot since she couldn't stand cold showers, and luckily for her, the heat was already kicking in, and she quickly went directly under the nozzle to let the hot liquid wash her body down.

Despite her incredible rushing, Serena was awfully cool and collected, perhaps because she was so used to getting all her morning chores done in a hurry from always sleeping in. The heavy sleeper snatched nearby shampoo and conditioner bottles and laid down a lavish helping on the top of her head, and she proceeded to scrub her hair quickly and thoroughly for a minute or so. Serena was now spotless from top to bottom, shutting off the water and hopping back out of the shower glass door. She dashed over to the towels and wiped her whole body with one hand while she took control of a powerful hair dryer with the other, blasting and wiping away all the moistness from her skin and hair and slapping on all of her clothes when she was done.

There was quite a mess of water and loose hairs strewn about on the floor, and Serena would've been glad to clean up after herself, but she was already running late as is. With her favorite outfit adorned, she burst out of the bathroom and hurried down the staircase to be greeted by a plate on the kitchen counter that housed two sets of toasted sandwiches and her mother scrubbing plenty of dishes made dirty from the night before, her noisy steps prompting Grace to turn her head, which Sugar had since been perched up upon, as if it were a nest.

"Glad to see you remembered what you had to do today, dear!" Grace's words were followed with a hearty chuckle as Serena's step had slowed down to a crawl, nodding with an embarrassed blush strewn across her face to boot. "S-sorry, mom… the party was just so intense, it was the only thing on my mind for a long time…" Serena walked over to the kitchen counter and quickly started to scarf down the toast Grace had prepared for her, not evening bothering to take a seat as she pigged out. "Hey now, food is the one thing you shouldn't rush with, dear." Her mother's words of wisdom caused Serena to slow down dramatically by the time she started eating the second toast slice. She even decided to get seated, and once she did, Grace took a break from dish washing to go sit with her daughter, keenly leaning towards her as the mother began to reminisce about her days as a Trainer herself.

"I still can't believe you've finally decided to go through with this! When I was your age, I went out on a Pokemon journey the very moment I was old enough to be eligible for the SPP. I even managed to get all the Gym Badges, buuut… I never did beat the Elite Four and the Champion. But, I know you'll be able to do it, sweetie! I have all my faith in you." Serena took the last bite of her toast once her mother finished her little speech and began to do some warm up exercises with her arms, still feeling awfully tired at the time. "Well, I sure hope I don't let you down, then. But I promise I'll try my best, mom."

Grace nodded with much enthusiasm at her daughter's words, but took notice of her very full and very heavy looking purse, wondering just what was in there. "Uh… did you carry your whole room with you, or something?" Grace pointed at the bag as she began to snicker, causing Serena to shake her head in a pouty fashion. "No way! I only just, um… brought a spare set of clothes, some other things I need, and… all those books…" With a smiling shake of her head, Grace got up from her seat and took the purse from Serena, planting it on the table as she unzipped it and proceeded to take out every last book from the bag, much to her daughter's dismay. "H-hey! Mom, I need those!" As she popped off of her seat and tried to extend her arm out to reach a book in her mother's hand, Grace held it away even further while shaking her head again.

"Serena, I have so much faith in you, that I believe you don't need a single book to tell you how to be the ideal Pokemon Trainer. You've learned a lot and I know for certain the knowledge is still with you. And even if I'm wrong, and you forgot all the info in these books, then let me tell you this… there's nothing more important than hands on experience."

The whole reason Serena wanted the books was because, unlike her mother, she initially had little faith in herself, and felt like she needed as much help as she could with the quest ahead of herself. As much as she did want to go on a Pokemon journey as of late, it was awfully nerve wracking, but she knew her mother had a point, prompting her to only silently nod with a tilted down head and her hands anxiously holding each other behind her back. Grace planted a hand on Serena's shoulder, causing her to look up with a blink. "Do me proud, okay?" Her mother's faith soon out returned the smile on Serena's face, and she couldn't help but hug her mother tightly, who gladly wrapped her arms around Serena in return, sharing an affectionate moment together before Grace started to realize she was now running later than ever, breaking the hug and giggling.

"You better go, before your friends start to think you aren't even going to show up!" Serena nodded quickly, grabbing her purse from the table and zipping it closed as she ran out of the door, keeping up that fast pace as she stepped onto the main street in the direction of Route 1. Grace and Sugar were watching her from out the window, the former of which started to shed a single tear which she quickly wiped away. She was so proud of Serena boldly going out into the world beyond the town, a world which she had never seen before, and saw her as an inspiration. Serena had always wanted to go out and explore all of Kalos, and now she finally could with the help of new friends and her own Pokemon. With a content sigh, Grace resumed washing the dishes, treating the rest of the day like it was any other.

A lot of people were out in their front lawns on this very morning, eager to wish Serena luck on her quest and a safe trip back when she was done. The amount of support she was receiving was overwhelming, granting her a massive confidence boost and causing her to smile the whole way through Vaniville Town. As she finally set foot outside the village, Serena slowly stopped, taking one last look at the town that meant everything to her. Up until now, Serena had no desire to go see the world, or bond with Pokemon, so this quiet little village on the edge of Kalos was her whole world. Memories were flooding her head of her home town, both good and not so good ones, and once she turned back to face the world beyond, Serena smiled with great ambition on her mind, and couldn't wait to see what fond memories she would now create in the rest of Kalos. With a spring in her step, she began to run again, towards the morning sun and towards Aquacorde Town.

However, Serena had no idea that some of the memories she were going to create would be the things that would keep her up at night.


End file.
